President Trump Donald John TrumpWarren unveils Native American policy plan Live-action 'Mulan' star spurs calls for boycott with support of Hong Kong police Don't let other countries unfairly tax America's most innovative companies MORE on Friday touted the large crowd size at his campaign rally in New Hampshire after critics pushed a critical hashtag to the top of Twitter’s trending items following circulated footage showing some empty seats at the event.
By Friday afternoon, more than 70,000 tweets had been shared using the hashtag #EmptySeatMAGATour, many of which included footage and photos from Trump’s rally at the SNHU Arena in Manchester the night before.
Most footage from the event showed large crowds as the president spoke, though one tweet that went viral highlighted a video clip from MSNBC showing Trump delivering remarks with a number of empty seats off to one side of the stage.
Other critics used the specific images to swipe at Trump, who has a history of boasting about the size of his campaign rallies.
Trump keeps saying his rallies are full, but doesn’t look like it.
Wow, I would hate for #EmptySeatMAGATour to trend so people knew the truth.
pic.twitter.com/BL8QiNo1C1 — Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) August 16, 2019
2020 is going to be great lol #EmptySeatMAGATour
pic.twitter.com/vnrC2go38j — aggi (@aggiwarsa) August 16, 2019
Some sought to defend the president's crowd sizes during the rally Thursday night while pushing back on the trending hashtag Friday, pointing to other photos of the stadium where seating was filled.
Such a joke that #EmptySeatMAGATour somehow trends up at the top with like 5,000 total tweets...I’m sure it’s “organic”
Even funnier that lefties share pictures from before Trump took the stage to find a couple empty seats.
Let’s show them the real pictures from last night! pic.twitter.com/p0Q3hZ38Fy — Eric Spracklen (@ThatTrumpGuy) August 16, 2019
So there were a few seats open at a Trump rally and liberals are elated. Laugh it up while you can losers you won’t be laughing in 2020 #EmptySeatMAGATour — Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) August 16, 2019
The left finds 12 seats out of 12k that are empty because secret service left them empty for security, then they run a fake hashtags like #EmptySeatMAGATour while there were literally 10k+ people watching the rally outside. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real pic.twitter.com/19UV3bhYz4 — Melissa A. (@TheRightMelissa) August 16, 2019
Police said the audience Thursday night for Trump's rally in New Hampshire was expected to reach as many as 11,000, a local NBC affiliate in Boston reported. The SNHU Arena has a capacity of 11,770.
The president sought to show off the large crowd that showed up at the rally Thursday night, sharing photos of the event later that night and pointing out the audience size.
Great news! Tonight, we broke the all-time attendance record previously held by Elton John at #SNHUArena in Manchester, New Hampshire! https://t.co/GHvFBkA2KZ — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2019
"[Place] was maxed out, totally packed, with thousands coming to the arena floor at start. Thousands more outside that were not allowed in per code. Energy was really great to see," Trump wrote in another tweet Friday night. "We will win New Hampshire in 2020!"
Great time in New Hampshire last night. Placed was maxed out, totally packed, with thousands coming to the arena floor at start. Thousands more outside that were not allowed in per code. Energy was really great to see. We will win New Hampshire in 2020! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2019
Look at the tremendous overflow at packed arena in New Hampshire last night. Sorry we couldn’t get you in, will be back soon! pic.twitter.com/Rvd2TeJrpo — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2019
Trump has long touted the audience size for his political rallies, including most recently during a visit to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, following a mass shooting in the city earlier this month.
– This story was updated at 10:50 p.m.
JohnGillnitz on August 17th, 2019 at 02:16 UTC »
Who wants to see their senile grandpa rant for two hours about nonsense. "I'll save the coal industry! And I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time."
theendisneah on August 16th, 2019 at 23:46 UTC »
Looks like we're shifting from MAGA to KAG, "Keep America Great." So that means he has made us great again guys already right!?! guys?
Jsmith0730 on August 16th, 2019 at 23:34 UTC »
Regardless of whether it's even true or not; just the implication alone is enough to trigger him.