The numbers game is everything to Donald J. Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris’s first big rally appears to have gotten under his skin.

The numbers game is everything to Donald J. Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris’s first big rally appears to have gotten under his skin.

When former President Donald J. Trump walked onto the stage at his rally in Atlanta on Saturday, fog machines shot white plumes of smoke into the air, heralding his arrival.

If you looked closely, you could almost imagine steam pouring out of his ears, too. All week long, something had been giving him the vapors.

“Crazy Kamala,” he fumed a minute into his speech. “She was here a week ago — lots of empty seats — but the crowd she got was because she had entertainers.”

Four days earlier, Vice President Kamala Harris had packed about the same number of people (10,000) into the arena, the Georgia State University Convocation Center. It was the first major rally of her newborn campaign, and she had two rappers (Quavo and Megan Thee Stallion) on hand to hype up her crowd.

Mr. Trump, who has been shunned by much of the entertainment industry, spun this as somehow cheating in the all-important competition over crowd size.

  • Blackout@kbin.run
    108·
    5 months ago

    The article seems to insinuate that he had just as large of a crowd in Atlanta but it was much smaller. They also state that his campaign rallies have been as big as ever but they too have been smaller.

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
      78·
      5 months ago

      Classic NY Times. Steering into conservatism in the name of presenting both sides. Man. Sometimes there isn’t two sides to a story, and that’s been the case since 2012 with Donald Trump. This fucko has been spouting insane shit for over a decade and everyone just gives him a platform because when a rich guy says something, no matter how insane, that’s news worthy. We never woulda had a Trump presidency if the media hadn’t been like “Donald Trump keeps saying Barack Obama isn’t American. What’s that about?” And then treated him serious instead of dismissing it as what it was, the lunatic ramblings of a racist

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        5 months ago

        This broader issue has been bad for a while. I honestly wonder if our climate change situation would be better today if the media hadn’t given equal time to scientists who didn’t think there was human-influenced climate change, even though they were an infinitesimally small fraction of climate scientists. I can understand why some people thought it was a debate among scientists long after it was broadly accepted.

        Likewise, treating every wholly fabricated lie that Trump spouts out like it deserves consideration gives him underserved legitimacy.

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
          51·
          5 months ago

          Who controls the media? That’s the question to ask. Do they have an incentive to manufacture outrage? Do they have reason to favor one outcome over another? Even if what they’re presenting you is factually accurate, sometimes even deciding to give something coverage at all changes what the story is. Donald Trump coulda been a rich guy with weird thoughts with only the people already following him on twitter seeing his bullshit, or better yet, he coulda been thrown off twitter, but the news MADE him into a public figure by treating him as one. And then twitter didn’t kick him off the platform BECAUSE he was a public figure.

    • Coach@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      5 months ago

      I’d also like to see the media report on how many people at his rallies travel to every rally. If the same people are at every event, then isn’t it much less of a “crowd” and much more of a traveling circus?

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
      21·
      5 months ago

      I think it’s important not to underestimate the enemy by convincing ourselves Cheetolini doesn’t have support.

      According to multiple reporters and the venue itself, both rallies had “at-capacity attendance,” meaning there were more people wanting to attend then were allowed into the venue. Apparently there were reserved areas at Trump’s rally that didn’t fill, but it’s unclear why they were reserved and why they weren’t filled.

      That being said, reports note people actually stayed for Harris’s rally, whereas people began leaving halfway through Trump’s 90+ minute rambling speech.

      • FelixCress@lemmy.world
        13·
        5 months ago

        people began leaving halfway through Trump’s 90+ minute rambling speech

        I am amazed that anyone who is not utterly deaf or utterly stupid can take more than a few minutes of his nonsense. Oh, hold on…