What's Rattling Trump: The Size of Harris's Crowds (NY Times)

[ificandream]

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

By Shawn McCreesh
Reporting from Atlanta

Aug. 4, 2024
Updated 3:45 p.m. ET

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.

(snip)

The numbers game has long been of paramount importance for Mr. Trump. As a reality television star, he was obsessed with ratings (“What is it about me that gets Larry King his highest ratings?” he wrote in one of his books). This only intensified once he entered politics. He spent his first full day in office as president trying to convince the news media that his inauguration crowd was larger than the Women’s March the day before. (It was not.)

(snip)

Ms. Harris’s rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, when she is expected to unveil her running mate, is likely to be a blowout. After that, she’s going on tour, holding rallies in western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas. It’s all starting to screw with Mr. Trump’s psyche.

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This story claims that both candidates' rallies have been about even in attendance. Could have sworn I saw reports that Harris' were way over what Trump was getting.

[onecaliberal]

1. Pictures were posted side by side.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. The Harris Campaign released this video on crowd sizes

Link to tweet

[BlueSky3]

4. Even crowd sizes? I wouldn't

believe it, coming from the NY Times - the newspaper I and a lot of other people no longer subscribe to. Wish I could cancel it again.

[Blue Owl]

5. Little Donny tRump's getting beat up by a GIRL

Time to point and laugh!

[lees1975]

6. Not that the size of a crowd at a rally is really any indication at all of how the candidate will do,

but it perhaps does measure local voter enthusiasm. If I were interested in a bet, I'd say that if her Atlanta rally is any measure of enthusiasm of Georgia Democrats in the city at the heart of the suburban area where Democrats won the last two statewide elections, then I'd bet on her to carry Georgia. Especially compared to the size of Trump's rally and the enthusiasm expressed by having half the audience walk out long before he's finished speaking.