Donald Trump got played.
45 held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday. In the days leading up, Trump boasted that he was expecting a record turnout.
The Trump campaign set expectations high for the rally, announcing that they had received more than a million ticket requests, despite the venue, the BOK Center, seating just 19,200.
Anticipating high turnout that would exceed that capacity, the campaign planned a second, outdoor speech to address the crowd in the overflow section.
Not only did people not show up, K-pop fans and TikTok users reserved a large number of tickets — with absolutely no intention of going.
Andrew Little, the Public Information Officer for the Tulsa Fire Department, confirmed that a tally taken by the fire marshal clocked the turnout at just under 6,200 people.
The Trump campaign said recently that over one million tickets were requested for the Tulsa rally, the first rally in months due to covid-19.
Trump proclaimed that there wouldn’t be an empty seat.
I’ll let this video inside the rally speak for itself. pic.twitter.com/se6er6j49m
— Elizabeth Thomas (@lizzkatherine_) June 20, 2020
The campaign ended up cancelling the second speech to the overflow section, with Communications Director Tim Murtaugh blaming the low turnout on the media and protesters, who he claimed blocked access to the entrance despite reports that nobody was turned away from the rally.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised the youth who were reportedly responsible for essentially trolling the Trump campaign.
Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID
Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud. ?? https://t.co/jGrp5bSZ9T
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
