Donald Trump raged that his arena was completely full on night two of his midterm convention, but video proved otherwise.
The 80-year-old president made his second appearance at the Republican convention in Dallas on Thursday night, a day after delivering a speech promising Americans $5,000 each if Republicans retain their House and Senate majorities on Nov. 3.
On Thursday, he insisted he would keep his remarks shorter than day one, when he spoke for more than an hour and 45 minutes, but Trump soon proceeded to melt down on stage, denying the presence of empty seats.
“Everybody said, ‘You have a midterm convention, it’s going to be a disaster,’ Trump said. “No, but look at it, the highest rafter, no empty seats!”
Those who looked to the highest rafters would see the entire sections were almost empty, but the president did not stop there.
“The fake news, they searched the arena. There are thousands of people outside, they searched the arena for a seat, that’s why last night I said, ‘Please don’t get up, and go to the bathroom, just sit,’” Trump rambled. “Because they’re fake people, they’re fake horrible, horrible human beings. Not all, not all. You have some fine journalists, not too many to be honest with you.”
“But they search when somebody gets up. Yesterday, a couple got up, two people, that’s a disaster,” Trump continued. “And you immediately see cameras running to take pictures of those two, so no, we were packed last night, we had thousands of people outside.”
The arena has a 21,000-person capacity. Trump insisted on night one there were no empty seats “at all.”
On night two, the president then proceeded to gesture to the private boxes around the arena, declaring, “The rich people boxes, they usually have a block with people, look at them, every box is loaded up, every box, every corner.”
As the president spoke, his supporters roared their approval, ignoring the reality that there were clearly seats available in the arena, and some of the boxes were empty.
“Look at those boxes up there, I don’t know if they’re rich or they’re poor, but they’re there. We got a lot of people,” Trump kept going.
His ramblings about crowd size to close out the convention came after there were a large number of empty seats during his remarks on night one, including in the lowest levels.
Organizers were spotted urging people to move into seats on the ground floor. Night two had a fuller crowd, but plenty of open seats in the upper sections were visible. Posters of American flags placed on many of the seats were left untouched.
As the president insisted there were thousands of people waiting outside on night two, the Daily Beast found that there were no such crowds outside while he spoke and that workers were actually beginning to pack up. The Daily Beast also spotted people leaving the venue despite the president still being on stage.
“Tomorrow you’re going to read, ‘There were some empty seats.’ Headline: Empty Seats,” Trump ranted. “First of all, if we had one-fifth of this crowd it would be a success. We have a packed arena with thousands of people outside.”
The fixation on attendance numbers echoes one of the defining controversies of Trump’s first presidency, when his administration fiercely disputed estimates showing his 2017 inauguration crowd was smaller than former President Barack Obama’s.
Then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer famously accused the media of deliberately undercounting attendees and described the audience as the “largest” ever to witness an inauguration. Since then, Trump has been obsessing about crowd sizes–at rallies, conventions, and this year’s contentious Great American State Fair.
Trump eventually did move on with his night two remarks, delivering some of the similar lines that he gave during his night one speech.
He also had the crowds of GOP supporters raise their right hand and take a pledge, “to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can’t even breathe.”
His MAGA supporters laughed as they echoed him with a vow that they, their families and friends would all vote on Nov. 3.
Trump even joked in the pledge, “I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell, like they do.”
Trump spoke for more than 20 minutes. Closing out the convention, opera singer Christopher Macchio took the stage and sang three songs as red, white, blue and gold balloons were dropped from the ceiling.
Trump stood nearby on the stage swaying to songs including “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera.
