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PITTSBURGH, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump has spent nearly a decade bragging about his crowds. Lately, he’s been making the same boasts to swaths of empty seats.
In his third presidential bid, Trump for the first time is facing an opponent who stages her own massive rallies, calling further attention to the fact that his crowds, however enthusiastic they are, sometimes have failed to fill large venues and often thinned out as he spoke.
In North Carolina this weekend, the former president and Republican nominee spoke at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, where the lower level of the 22,000-seat arena remained unfilled, with the upper level blocked off altogether.
“We've had the biggest rallies in history of any country. Every rally's full," he falsely claimed anyway. “You don't have any seats that are empty.”
He began Monday, the eve of the election, in Raleigh, North Carolina, where a late-arriving crowd came close to filling the venue but left a smattering of empty seats. In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump took the stage in Santander Arena, where there were sections of empty seats in the 7,200-seat arena. The campaign hung a large American flag near the back of the arena, blocking the view of several seating sections that remained unfilled.
He then went to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, where the upper level seating was again blocked off.
The former president’s crowds still routinely number in the thousands and they roared regularly as he spoke. And his supporters this year remain engaged enough that his final event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was inside a packed arena even though it started after 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, nearly two hours late. Some rallygoers told a reporter they arrived at 7 a.m. the day before.
But the occasional scenes of empty seats offered a notable contrast to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' biggest events this fall — and to the volume and vibe of Trump's crowds eight years ago when he sought and won the presidency for the first time.
To be sure, crowd sizes aren't necessarily predictive of electoral outcomes. Still, Trump has been drawing smaller crowds in the closing stretch of the campaign than he did in previous races, especially his first campaign, when his mass events became a political phenomenon. Trump’s crowds this fall also have often thinned out as the former president’s long stump speeches extend into their second hour.
People routinely leave while he's speaking, sometimes in droves, after waiting several hours for a spot.
There are reasons why some might be fatigued.
Trump has been returning again and again to the same battleground states, sometimes speaking in the same places and even the same venues. Trump’s smaller Greensboro crowd, for example, came eight days after he had campaigned in the same city.
He also often runs late, starting three hours behind recently in Traverse City, Michigan, after taping an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.
But whatever the explanation, the former reality television star and consummate showman clearly remains invested in the performative aspect of presidential politics and obviously concerned that Harris, unlike Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Joe Biden in 2020, can match and even exceed his signature campaign tactic. Harris, for example, recently filled the large coliseum in Greensboro.
Democrats have embraced the dynamics as a way to get under Trump’s skin. Former President Barack Obama, the last national figure before Trump and Harris to make mass rallies a key part of his campaigns, noted Trump’s “weird obsession” with crowd size during his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. Obama added mocking hand gestures about size that evoked Trump's own comments during his first campaign on hand sizes and his implication that they reflected his manhood.
Harris invoked crowd sizes during her lone debate against Trump, one of many times that she knocked the former president off course during their 90-minute exchange. She urged people to attend Trump's rallies as a way of understanding his time had passed.
Trump on Monday night in Pittsburgh directed barbs toward Beyoncé’s appearance at a recent Harris rally that drew more than 30,000 people. The megastar introduced Harris in Houston but did not perform.
Harris has campaigned with a bevy of celebrities and pop stars in the campaign's final days, ending with a Philadelphia rally featuring Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga. The star of Trump's show, meanwhile, remains the former president.
In recent days, he's shown a wistful side both about the rallies and the crowds coming to see him — however big they really are.
“I have one left,” he said in Pittsburgh, wistfully looking ahead to his late-night event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “And remember, the rallies are the most exciting thing. They’ll never be rallies like this. This is never going to happen again.” ——
Barrow reported from Washington. Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Joey Cappelletti in Grand Rapids, Michigan contributed to this report.