Trump Is Pitifully Lying About Crowd Size Again, This Time About His ‘Great American State Fair’

Donald Trump has always been obsessed with the size of his crowds, and his attempts to turn America’s 250th birthday into a celebration of himself and his vision of the country are proving no exception. But as the lame-duck incumbent rather than the provocative challenger, he’s struggling to draw the enthusiastic crowds he once did. And he absolutely hates to have that fact pointed out.

MS NOW reports:

[Trump] delivered a campaign-style speech and made much of the gathering a celebration of himself, not the country.

In case that weren’t quite enough, turnout for the event was — how do I put this gently — underwhelming.

An NBC News report noted, “Roughly half of those in Wednesday’s crowd of more than 1,000 wore Trump’s slogans or likeness on their clothes. For them, America’s 250th birthday was secondary to an opportunity to see the president.” The Washington Post ran a related report that noted, in reference to attendees, “The crowd thinly covered an area about the length of the National Museum of American History, smaller than some summer outdoor movie screenings.” ...

Five hours later, either trying to convince the public or himself, he published a follow-up item, which read in part, “Last night’s Rally was packed — 45,000 people.“ An NBC News report described the president’s claim as “false,“ adding that the actual total was “nowhere near 45,000 people.”

The fact that Trump appears to have lied about a crowd size is pitiful but predictable. He has, after all, been doing this since literally the first day of his first term.

Pitiful, indeed.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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