There’s a reason why Donald Trump is taking his loss in Iowa so hard – it’s been devastating to his national standing. His standing in the polls might already be falling like a rock, and now it appears that the rolling concert tour that was his national campaign might be coming to an end. Now comes pretty convincing evidence that his crowds are shrinking, and he’s trying to hide it (poorly).
Trump was in Little Rock last night, and he tweeted a picture that seemed to show a typical Trump full house, and that specifically claimed that the crowd was a “record” and that it was “12K.”
THANK YOU to everyone in Little Rock, Arkansas tonight! A record crowd of 12K. #Trump2016https://t.co/MjtIq2ii0Q pic.twitter.com/I9WkPN3pWm
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2016
The problem, as IJ Review notes, is that the total capacity for the arena where Trump held this event, including floor capacity, is 10,195. So in order for this count to be accurate, this would truly have been an absolutely astounding overflow crowd. The only problem is, it wasn’t. Media was there at the event, and documented how, during Trump’s speech, large sections of the seating were completely empty and the floor was at most half full.
Here is video that was taken during the event, you can clearly hear that Trump is speaking, and the arena looks at least half empty:
As the Daily Mail notes, Trump at one point claimed that the Fire Marshal said it was a record and they were turning people away. Trump asked the Fire Marshal to come up on stage and confirm it for the benefit of the media, and the “Fire Marshal” allegedly obliged. The only problem is that the man who came on stage was not the fire marshal, but rather the general manager of the state fair.
Of course, the bigger question might well be, what the heck is Donald Trump doing in Arkansas in the first place? Is he really so sure that he will win New Hampshire that he has no concern over New Hampshire’s historically late break? Or the optics of being off across the rest of the country while the rest of the field is camped in state?
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