Former president donald trump took to new heights his obsession with the large crowds that Vice President Kamala Harris is drawing at her rallies, falsely declaring in a series of social media posts on Sunday that she had used artificial intelligence to create images and videos of fake crowds.
The crowds at Harris’ events, including one in Detroit outside an airplane hangar, were witnessed by thousands of people and media outlets including The New York Times, and the number of attendees claimed by her campaign is in line with the which was visible on the floor. Trump falsely wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, that “there was no one on the plane, and she did it.”
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
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Trump has struggled to find his political footing in the weeks since President Joe Biden decided to step aside and Harris replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket: Trump questioned Harris’ racial identity at a conference for black journalists, he later attacked Brian Kemp, the popular Republican governor in the key swing state of Georgia, and he has seen new polls that place him behind Harris in several key states.
Harris’ campaign began mocking Trump for his frustration with the crowds, one of which it said topped 15,000 at a Phoenix-area event on Friday.
“It’s not like anyone cares about the size of the crowds or anything like that,” the governor said. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Harris’ running mate, told the crowd, to loud applause.
In his Sunday posts, Trump drew parallels between his false claims of fake crowds and his false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
“She is a cheat. She had NO ONE waiting, and the ‘crowd’ seemed like 10,000 people!” Trump wrote. “The same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ in her speeches. That’s how Democrats win elections, by cheating – and they’re even worse at the polls. She should be disqualified because creating a false image is ELECTORAL INTERFERENCE.”
Harris’ campaign took to Trump’s social media to mock his wild accusations, responding to one of her posts by sharing a video of Air Force Two arriving in Detroit to a huge crowd and her exiting the plane with Walz.
“In case you forgot @realdonaldtrump: this is what a rally in a swing state looks like,” his campaign wrote.
Trump did not hold any events in swing states last week. Instead, he held a rally in Montana, where there is a crucial Senate race, and a news conference at his property in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Trump also showed frustration with Harris’ crowd at that event, and even bragged about the crowd at his Washington, D.C., rally on January 6, 2021, which preceded the Capitol riot, saying it was larger than drawn. by Martin Luther King Jr. for his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
“No one has spoken to bigger crowds than me,” Trump said.
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