4 Times Trump's Wild Claims About His Rallies Were Proven False

Being a presidential candidate means spending a lot of time out on the road talking about oneself in an attempt to woo prospective voters. For Donald Trump, that's not exactly a difficult task. Ever since announcing his intent to run for office a third time, the divisive politician has been appearing almost daily at rallies — sometimes squeezing in more than one at a time. In red states, Trump looked for reassurance that his fans would show up at the polls in November; in crucial swing states, he attempted to sway undecided voters his way. Even though Trump still owes millions in rally bills and legal fees, this hasn't slowed him down in the least. The former president's schedule for the first week of October 2024 included two rallies in one day in separate Wisconsin cities, alongside a return to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he narrowly escaped assassination just three months earlier.

For a former TV personality, being able to express his opinions to a cheering audience is Trump's idea of heaven. So enamored is he, in fact, that he often talks about his rallies during his rallies. The praise is gushing and self-promoting, if not always truthful: A Trump speech one day is usually followed by a news outlet fact-checking his statements the next. About the only claim that can't be debunked is Trump's messy Mother's Day shoutout, in which he said his late mother-in-law was looking down from heaven and complimenting the size of the crowd (via X, formerly known as Twitter). Maybe "Long Island Medium" Theresa Caputo can speak to that one. In the meantime, there are plenty of other dubious rally-related statements to excavate.

Topping the list of Donald Trump's rally claims, of course, are his boasts about the massive turnout he gets every single time he appears onstage. One representative example came at a Michigan event in September 2024, when the former president rattled off a list of recent attendance stats: "We had 107,000 people show up in New Jersey, we had 68,000 people show up in Alabama, we had 79 or 81,000 in South Carolina," (via Newsweek). The message is clear: Anyone who can draw crowds that big deserves to run the country. But the outlet also pointed out that while thousands of MAGA followers do attend Trump rallies, the number is nowhere near the figures he claims. 

The Alabama count, for instance, is off by about 15 to 20,000 attendees, according to local officials, and the Jersey Shore location is only capable of holding fewer than 80,000 people. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung clarified that the total figures include fans without tickets who flock outside the venues just to be near their hero. When Trump spoke at Crotona Park in the Bronx borough of New York City, he later reposted stats on Truth Social that claimed he'd drawn a crowd of 25,000. Yet footage from the local ABC affiliate included an overhead shot of the scene, revealing a much smaller group clustered around the stage. 

Former President Barack Obama couldn't help getting in a dig at his successor at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. "Here's a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden elevator nine years ago," he began (per Deadline). "There's the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes." Obama then improvised a visual gag, spreading his hands apart before bringing them, well, embarrassingly close together to laughter.

You can call Donald Trump clueless, a bully, narcissistic, or even unfit to lead the country (and plenty of people have!). But whatever you do, don't call him boring. Kamala Harris really got under Trump's skin during their first presidential debate with one particular dig — not about his "concept" of a healthcare plan, or even his offensive, and easily disproven, comments about illegal immigrants eating pets in Ohio, but about the controversial candidate's rally audiences. "People start leaving his rallies early," the vice president pointed out (via YouTube), "out of exhaustion and boredom" over Trump's lengthy speeches and repetitive talking points. Outraged, the former president insisted it was Harris who had trouble filling a venue. "People don't leave my rallies," he stated confidently. "We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics." 

Trump hasn't left the topic alone since then. At a rally in Michigan months later, he repeated his "nobody ever leaves" claim (via X), suggesting some folks just look like they're leaving when they're actually stretching their legs. But as much as the former "Apprentice" host would like to believe his fans hang on his every word, there's plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise. A quick search online elicits numerous videos of visitors departing his rallies mid-speech, such as this one from Trump's New Jersey event. 

Moreover, The New York Times published a report on rally crowd sizes with comparison shots of the audiences at two separate events. The seats were full when the divisive candidate began talking, but an hour or so in, there were tons of empty spots in the stands. True, the fans may have legit reasons for ducking out. But the fact remains that not everyone sticks around until their favorite president leaves the stage.

It stands to reason that a former president known for his wild use of superlatives (see: "greatest," "tremendous," "bigly") would want to boast of attracting the largest crowds of any public figure in history. But Donald Trump went a step too far when he tried to out-bigly The Boss. In May 2024, he held a beachside rally in Wildwood, NJ, where the divisive politician declared his events were so inspiring that they would convince even "[wacko] [...] liberal singers" to vote for him. Then Trump dared to invoke a name New Jerseyans consider sacred: "You know, like Bruce Springsteen. We have a much bigger crowd than Bruce Springsteen. Right?" (via the Asbury Park Press). Not only did this brag not sit well with Springsteen's legions of fans, it was also highly inaccurate. 

The singer drew at least 80,000 more people during his last Garden State concert than Trump had at his one rally, marking yet another chapter in the ongoing drama between Trump and Springsteen, which dates back at least as far as 2016. The Republican candidate played "Born in the U.S.A." during his rallies, and though Springsteen didn't order him to cease and desist, it was clear from his support of Hillary Clinton where he stood on the matter. Besides, anyone who's familiar with the song also knows it's not a patriotic anthem. Oddly, Trump has yet to compare his audience numbers to those of Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, two of his most prominent advocates in the music industry. 

Not content to compare himself to one of the most beloved and popular musicians of all time, Donald Trump took it up a notch by declaring himself more popular than the King of Rock 'n' Roll himself. At a September 2024 rally in Long Island, NY, he once again brought up his crowd size: "I'd call up my wife and say, 'Baby, who can draw crowds? Nobody can draw crowds like me, nobody, not even close,'" the former president proudly declared (via X). Then he added, "I'm the greatest of all time. Maybe greater even than Elvis. Elvis had a guitar, I don't have a guitar. I don't have the privilege of a guitar." 

This eyebrow-raising boast echoed another speech Trump made back in 2018 during his initial run for the presidency when the divisive candidate told the audience, "I shouldn't say this. You'll say I'm very conceited, 'cause I'm not. But other than the blond hair, when I was growing up, they said I looked like Elvis. [...] I consider it a great compliment," (via X). The line was brutally mocked online, with one user tweeting: "Another crucial difference: Elvis had talent." And we're still not done! Speaking to reporters about his infamous January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, Trump brought up another renowned king. 

"Nobody has spoken to crowds bigger than me," he proclaimed (via NBC News). "If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his ['I Have a Dream'] speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people." Again, Trump was off by about 150,000 attendees, according to estimates quoted by PolitiFact. He also avoided mentioning one little detail: Dr. King's audience didn't break into the Capitol building afterward to stop congress from certifying a president.