Trump Blames ‘Lamestream Media’ for Lying About Small Crowd Sizes on Campaign Trail: ‘We Never Have Empty Seats’

Former President Donald Trump provided an explanation for what he claimed was erroneous reporting about the size of the crowds attending his rallies on the campaign trail Wednesday, blaming the “Lamestream Media” for supposedly misrepresenting them.

“Many times when I’m making a Speech, which are always sold out with lots of people not being able to get into the Arena or Venue, the Fake News will watch people come down from the rafters (bad seats) onto the floor—nearer the stage,” Trump wrote in his random-caps style. “As soon as this happens, the Lamestream Media starts taking pictures of these once fully occupied areas and seats, and then come out with a story—’Trump Arena wasn’t full’ or, ‘Trump didn’t have a Sellout’—When they know that is not true. They say it without fail!”

“The fact is, thousands of people get sent away, we never have empty seats, because we’re selling a product people want—AMERICAN GREATNESS!” concluded Trump. “This is a Movement like none other, and the Failing Media should get on board now. Our Country needs it, and they need it because their lack of credibility is causing many News Organizations to fail. They’re going out of business because they don’t tell the truth. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump has long obsessed over coverage of his crowd sizes, most notably contesting reports that much fewer people showed up for his inauguration in 2017 than attended former President Barack Obama’s in 2009.

Then White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer insisted to reporters in the briefing room that Trump had attracted “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe” in what became a widely mocked moment early in Trump’s presidency.

Spicer also blamed the media for its “dishonesty” in reporting on the discrepancy in crowd size, calling the “attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”