Donald Trump’s latest boast about his crowd size fell apart in a hurry as he was fact-checked in real-time while he was still speaking.
“We do a lot of these beautiful rallies, and it’s so great,” the former president said in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. “We never have an empty seat, never have, look at it.”
Just one problem: While the sections closest to the stage were packed with MAGA faithful, there were plenty of empty seats toward the back of the venue ― and observers began sharing images of them on social media almost immediately.
An Associated Press photo also shows some of the empty seats:
NewsNation’s Libbey Dean shared footage of empty seats:
Columnist Dana Milbank also tweeted footage and images from the event showing the empty seats that Trump insisted he never has:
NBC’s Jake Traylor wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the empty seats were “notable and unusual” for a Trump rally.
However, it’s also becoming increasingly common as observers at Trump’s rallies have noted both empty seats and people departing early, often while he’s carrying on about sharks, windmills and Hannibal Lecter.
His Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, also brought it up at their debate last month.
“He talks about fictional characters, like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about how windmills cause cancer,” she said. “What you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.”
The comment triggered Trump, who erupted over it during the debate and has been bringing it up ever since.
During his event in Reading, Trump bragged that he had 100,000 people in attendance in Butler, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, a number that is more than quadruple the estimate of about 24,000 from CBS station KDKA.
The capacity of Santander Arena in Reading, where Trump spoke Wednesday, is between 7,200 and 8,800, depending on the configuration.
Trump’s critics on social media fired back at Trump’s boast of “never” having an empty seat: