SIMPLE & QUICK: When the crowd is a no-show, Donald Trump’s delusion goes pro

A raucous crowed packs Tulsa’s Bank of America (BOK) Center tonight. The spill over crowd and supportive spectators who could not jam themselves inside the 19,199-seat venue sprawl for blocks on the city streets. In a sea of red there are more MAGA hats and Trump 2020 banners than ever seen before in any one place in America at any one time.  Proud white men open-carry AR-15s, wearing all black Kevlar with aggressive geometrical symbols and marching alongside hordes of mask-denying Trump adorers. MAGA 2020 has arrived. The Donald is back— bigly!

Of course, this is all nonsense. There are some armed folks with AR-15s, but that is okay because Oklahoma is an open carry state. There are also plenty of MAGA hats and Trump 2020 banners. American flags are not scarce in sight either, and most people are not wearing masks. But that is about as far as the fun goes with Trump’s much anticipated Tulsa campaign kick-off rally. So, what happened? The campaign bragged about having over 1,000,000 reservations. They did admit that would be overly-successful, but Team Trump surely anticipated around 100,000 excited supporters.

Numbers are not final yet and there is more verifying to do, but early numbers are suggesting around 9-12,000 people in attendance tonight. The President cancelled his pre-rally speech and the outdoor overflow venue was being dismantled before the President even spoke inside. There simply is not enough people. In fact, once the doors opened, the entirety of the outside crowd fit inside the BOK Center— and still the upper bleachers are noticeably a sea of blue, empty seats. Even lower level seating looks surprisingly spacious. Still, very little physical distancing.

There are a few reasons. The most curious establishing narrative includes K-POP fans and an ornery grandma gone viral on TikTok. Occam’s razor points to the fact that America is in the middle of a raging pandemic and people are simply not enthused to be enclosed in large groups. Perhaps. But also perhaps, the big red hot air balloon is deflating fast and MAGA is a mega fail.

The speech itself is basic red meat to his base. Oddly, there is little mention of Mexico. “Kung flu” seems to be favored in tonight’s racist flavoring. The pandemic is being down played. The President even says that he directed there be less testing in America because more testing means more confirmed positives. Like today.

The rally tonight is supposed to energize the President as much as it is to re-energize the campaign. Instead, the Tulsa Health Director urged to postpone and there are reports that most inside Trump’s own camp did not want to go with an in-person rally just yet, they wanted to wait and do rallies closer to the November election. But he persisted— and the President insisted— he needs a rally to restart his mojo.

What did President Trump think tonight when he peered out onto empty blue bleachers? What were his thoughts as he cancelled the pre-rally outdoor speech because there are not enough people to fill camera angles? Isn’t there supposed to be boku Boogaloo and Proud Boys? There were talks of singers playing with live big band music. The show was to be the greatest! The speech is over and streets in Tulsa are clearing. The low-energy crowd leaving attendance tonight describe the President’s speech performance as “rusty.”

It was late April when the President jumped the shark by telling citizens to inject themselves with disinfectants to prevent his described “kung flu hoax.” It is now just two months later and certainly clear to Ringmaster Trump that the show is over. The bag of tricks work well on some of the people some of the time. But racist ineptitude and failed government populism will not work on all the people all of the time.  Tick-tock, Mr. Trump.


21-JUNE: CORRECTION: TULSA FIRE MARSHAL ESTIMATES AN ATTENDANCE OF JUST UNDER 6,200 PEOPLE AT TULSA KICK-OFF TRUMP 2020 RALLY