Donald Trump gets defensive about his plummeting crowd size
If you were paying close attention to the Iowa Republican caucus and the New Hampshire Republican primary, you noticed an interesting trend: Trump’s rally crowd size was anemic at best. Some in the media pointed this out, and so now Trump is getting defensive about it.
He posted this on social media: “We had giant crowds in Iowa and New Hampshire, but because of the cold weather and smaller venues, except for the Ice Hockey Arena in N.H., which was packed, a large scale TRUMP RALLY was not in the cards.” Wait a minute. Is Trump really saying that the crowds were only small because the venues were too small? If so, then why did he book such small venues?
It feels like a confused and addled Trump is asking his handlers why the crowds were so small, and they’re feeding him every excuse they can think of. Trump is now insisting that he’ll have bigger crowds in South Carolina. We wonder what excuses will be trotted out if that doesn’t happen.
Rally crowd size has never translated to actual votes. Trump drew big crowds in 2016 and 2020 but lost the popular vote by millions of votes each time. If attendees see a political rally as a party, rather than coming away from the event with marching orders for going out and getting more people to vote for the candidate, then the rally was all for nothing. If crowd size translated to votes, candidates like Wendell Wilkie and Bernie Sanders would have become President. It just never translates. But the fact that Trump’s crowd size is plummeting is nonetheless a reason for him to be concerned. Even his core supporters just seem tired.
