Photos of 'huge' Trump rally appear online - and they're embarrassing
Not even Sean Spicer could spin this one
Cast your mind back a few months and you might remember the dispute over the turnout for Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States.
Then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer claimed it was the largest ever attendance for a presidential inauguration, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
But most of us had moved on from that, and Trump’s most ardent fans certainly had.
Which is why they were keen to put it all to bed by launching the ‘Mother of All Rallies’ [MOAR] in Washington, D.C., which organisers hoped would attract up to one million supporters of the 45th president.
It didn’t come close.
Hang on, but what if this is just a photo right at start, before anyone had got there, or right at the end, when everyone had left?
Oh.
Describing itself as an ‘America First patriot rally in support of American values, American culture, American traditions, and of course President Donald Trump’, MOAR claimed on its website to not be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican party.
While more than 2,000 pledged to attend on Facebook, with a further 6,000 expressing an interest, the eventual turnout was thought to be 1,000 at most, according to journalists reporting from Washington.
That’s fewer than the number of people who attended a Juggalo rally on the same day, and possibly even fewer than the number who showed up to a Hillary Clinton book signing the same weekend.
The Juggalos – who have their roots in their fandom of the hip-hop act Insane Clown Posse – were protesting being classified by the FBI as a ‘loosely organized hybrid gang’, in case you were wondering.
It should be noted that the Mother of All Rallies was unofficial, with reports suggesting no elected Republican figures were in attendance, let alone the President or his inner circle.
No need to put out a public statement contesting the reported figures, then, but the low turnout prompted plenty of jokes.
Oh well. Better luck next time.
(Images: Rex Features/Twitter/@RVAwonk)
