President Trump told supporters that a rally addressed by former President Barack Obama in Detroit, Michigan, was "empty" during his own rally in Georgia. Obama was in Michigan to support Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is in a close fight with Republican Mike Rogers, and his party’s gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson. Trump’s comments are the latest in a long line comparing his crowd sizes against those of various rivals, and in particular Obama’s, showing the president’s continued interest in this topic.
Though the venue was relatively small, Obama’s rally in Cass Technical High School's gym had a good attendance, according to photographs and video shared on social media. Newsweek contacted Cass Technical High School by email, along with Obama’s office via press inquiry form, for comment outside of regular office hours. The White House press office referred Newsweek back to Trump’s comments when contacted.
During his own rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday Trump said: "You know I saw Barack Hussein Obama was in Michigan and the place was empty. And they were saying ‘oh this is a large crowd coming the people are tricking through’ – they don’t talk about my crowds, they never talk about them." Trump has a long record of including Obama’s middle name when mentioning the former president, in what critics argue is an attempt to make him sound more Islamic. Referring to El-Sayed by his middle name Trump added: "And now he’s making a speech for Mohammed today and a massive crowd, a massive crowd has shown up.
They never talk about my crowd. You know we talk about crowd size. I remember Bernie Sanders he used to get big crowds.
He would get like 900 to 1,000 people. They say ‘Bernie Sanders spoke before massive crowd’ and Donald Trump was in town also by the way. I had 40,000 he’d have like 90." Video shared on X by Molly Ploofkins, a commentator with 164,000 followers on the platform, appeared to show the gymnasium where Obama delivered his speech was packed, though the venue was smaller than the stadiums where both Trump and Obama have previously held rallies.
According to Ploofkins, Obama’s rally had both a large in-person and overflow crowd, and she included a photograph showing what appeared to be a packed auditorium for the latter. Farrukh, a progressive commentator who posts about American and British politics, also posted a video purportedly taken from the stage during Obama’s speech on Saturday which showed a packed venue. According to the Michigan Bridge, a local media outlet, Obama’s rally was attended by "a crowd of more than 4,300 people." At the event Obama described November’s midterm elections as a potential "circuit breaker" and the "last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness" from the second Trump administration.
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