Trump’s rally in Tulsa on Saturday night did not fill the 19,000 seat arena ... even though there were an estimated million applications for tickets (even if some were fake). His handlers blamed protesters blocking access and national media coronavirus scare tactics for the shortfall of maybe 7,000 attendees.
Anti-Trump forces were giddy about this shortfall even though Trump got a rousing reception. The lesson to the Trump administration is to be careful about overpromising and underdelivering crowd sizes ... especially during a pandemic ... where older adults ... much of his base ... might be more chary about assembling in groups.
And the lesson for the Democrats is to be careful about jumping up and down too much about this shortfall. The real benefit here is the data collected by his re-election committee during the ticket application process. This data will be used during the actual election ... and, I expect here will be more rallies to come ... maybe in smaller venues ... but bigger than Biden’s basement.
