(NewsSpace.com) – Former President Donald Trump is currently in the midst of a criminal court case, but as the presumptive Republican nominee, he hasn’t let that stop him from campaigning. He has been active online and has attended various functions to keep him front and center in front of his supporters, who continue to stand by him. However, reports of one recent event indicate that people walked out en masse while he was in the middle of speaking.
New Jersey Rally
On Saturday, May 11, Trump held a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey. He boasted that the crowd that gathered was more than 100,000 strong. He spoke to the crowd, saying, “You can’t even see the back, there’s so many people here.” That figure was backed up by his spokesperson, Steven Cheung, and a Wildwood city spokesperson, who said that based on her own observations, there were 80,000 to 100,000 in attendance.
Newsweek reported Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. (R) said the beach area where Trump was speaking could only hold approximately 20,000. He confirmed that’s about how many people requested tickets for the event.
Trump has routinely bragged about the number of people who come to his events, using them as evidence that he is still popular with the American people and who they want to lead the country. However, there were many skeptics.
Social Media Questions Figures
On X, formerly Twitter, many were questioning the validity of the number of people in attendance. Several users posted videos of people walking out.
Aliya Schneider, with The Philadelphia Inquirer, noted that just after an hour, people were starting to head to the boardwalk to leave. She posted footage on X.
Trump is still speaking, but the crowd has been thinning. People have been walking out back to the boardwalk. pic.twitter.com/gPSvZeDFgW
— Aliya Schneider (@aliyareports) May 11, 2024
Schneider also noticed that the back was thinning out, too. Then, Zac Anderson of USA Today posted a video of a sparse crowd, saying “much of the crowd has left,” even though “Trump [was] still speaking.” He attributed it to the chilly weather and that the former president had been speaking for more than 90 minutes. Anderson even panned out to show that the area was mostly empty.
Trump is still speaking in Wildwood but much of the crowd has left. It’s cold and he’s been speaking 90 minutes. This whole area was full of people when Trump started. pic.twitter.com/r75Gwhwhf1
— Zac Anderson (@zacjanderson) May 11, 2024
Gaffes Abound
While speaking at the Wildwood event, Trump seemed to suffer from gaffes. Notably, he called Hannibal Lecter, a fictional serial killer, “a wonderful man,” a sentiment he then used to awkwardly segue into immigration issues. He referred to former President Jimmy Carter as Jimmy Connors and also recounted a conversation about politics he had with Frank Sinatra about eating before performing, though the famous crooner died years before Trump ever entered the political sphere.
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