Donald Trump is once again talking up his crowd sizes—this time for a MAGA rally that was meant to be a national commemoration.
A day after images showed less-than-expected crowds at his American State Fair rally on Wednesday night—including scores of people walking out during his speech—the president put out a self-soothing post declaring the opposite.
“The Crowd was incredible last night, packed to the brim—At least 45,000 people were there, with a huge Television and online audience,” the 80-year-old wrote on Truth Social.
“I wish we were able to have an even larger area, which we will be able to do on July 4th when I’ll be speaking again. The airplane flyovers and music were fantastic. Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech because they loved hearing about a truly successful America.”
The post came less than a day after the president headlined the launch of the American State Fair—a taxpayer-funded festival intended to kick off a year of events marking the nation’s 250th birthday.
The fair features military displays, historical exhibits, and cultural programming.
But as the Daily Beast reported on Wednesday, it also contained Trump imagery, such as a tacky plywood version of the triumphal arch the president hopes to build in the nation’s capital.
MAGA merchandise was also sold around the grounds ahead of last night’s rally, while a giant Ferris Wheel also sits on the site with Freedom 250 branding—the name of the Trump-backed task force overseeing the festivities.
Trump decided to headline the opening rally after a string of retro performers dropped out of a planned concert series, including Poison frontman Bret Michaels and Milli Vanilli.
As more and more musicians withdrew, an incensed Trump then demanded on Truth Social that organizers cancel the event before announcing that he would headline a rally himself at the State Fair as a replacement for the “highly paid, Third Rate `Artists,’” his team had booked.
Some Democratic-led states—including Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, Illinois, and Maine—have also declined to take part, citing costs, limited resources, and, in some cases, concerns that the supposedly nonpartisan celebration has become increasingly political.
As a result, organizers have sought to make up for their absence with mixed results: the Maine pavilion, for example, simply features a sparse room chair and facts about the state—and its trademark lobster—on the walls.
Trump provided no evidence for his estimate of the crowd size, which he said had reached 45,000 people.
The Washington Post, for example, reported that “the crowd thinly covered an area about the length of the National Museum of American History, smaller than some summer outdoor movie screenings.”
The Post further reported that the president “did not appear to enjoy the speech,” which “wrapped in under a half-hour,” adding: He asked for a bigger turnout for his next appearance on July 4.
Videos posted across social media also clearly showed people leaving while the president was still giving his speech, contrary to his claim that “everybody stayed right until the end.”
“This video, which I took last night at the rally clearly shows people leaving in droves while Trump was still speaking,” wrote Bulwark reporter Jared Poland.
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.
