Trump campaign rejects claims TikTok users ‘sabotaged’ Tulsa rally by reserving tickets they never intended to use
THE Trump campaign has slammed the idea that TikTokers are to blame for low attendance at the president’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.
and his boasted that nearly one million people registered online to attend the rally at the BOK Center, which holds 19,000 seats.
The campaign set up a stage outside the arena, where Trump and planned to speak to an “overflow” crowd outside at 7pm, before the 8pm rally.
But the Trump team scrapped the 7pm address when there wasn’t much of an “overflow” crowd outside at all.
, as seats were visibly empty and excess space was seen as Trump spoke to his supporters.
The Tulsa Fire Department said on Sunday that just under 6,200 people attended the rally the night before.
, Trump on Sunday was "furious" about the "underwhelming" event and was angry that it was publicly revealed hours before the rally was set to begin.
On Saturday, and others claimed the high expectations for attendance were because users played the campaign.
and reserving tickets for his comeback rally — with no plans to actually attend.
TikTokers said they wanted Trump to be left standing in front of an empty or fairly empty arena on Saturday.
Trump's team said the move would backfire, as they didn't put a limit on how many people could actually request tickets.
Trump and his campaign later blamed the poor attendance on "bad people" who were outside of the venue in the hours leading up to the rally.
"Radical protestors, fueled by a week of apocalyptic media coverage, interfered with @realDonaldTrump supporters at the rally," campaign manager Brad Parscale .
"They even blocked access to the metal detectors, preventing people from entering. Thanks to the 1,000s who made it anyway!"
who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during."
"Shout out to Zoomers," she said. "Y’all make me so proud."
Political strategist Steve Schmidt that he was "dead serious" when he said his daughter and her friends reserved "hundreds" of tickets.
"The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump. All across America teens ordered tickets to this event. The fools on the campaign bragged about a million tickets. lol," he said.
On Sunday, the Trump campaign blamed “leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don’t know what they’re talking about or how our rallies work,” .
said in a statement the media “gleefully wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop fans — without contacting the campaign for comment” for the low attendance.
Parscale said: “Registering for a rally means you’ve RSVPed with a cell phone number and we constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally, in calculating our possible attendee pool.”
“These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking. What makes this lame attempt at hacking our events even more foolish is the fact that every rally is general admission - entry is on a first-come-first-served basis and prior registration is not required.”
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He claimed the news media warned people to stay “away from the rally because of COVID and protestors.”
And, “coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally.”
Pascale said it’s made the campaign “wonder why we bother credentialing media for events when they don’t do their full jobs as professionals.”