Donald Trump responded agitatedly when asked if he was concerned about the crowds supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.
The former president said the “honeymoon period” would soon be over and lamented that the media refused to acknowledge the impressive size of his audience.
“Oh, give me a break,” Trump exhaled during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday before thanking the reporter for giving him the opportunity to tout how many supporters attend his rallies.
He insisted that there are up to 30 times more people at his campaign events than at the vice president’s and that if he gathered his crowds, people would say that his campaign was “over.”
The news conference comes as Trump’s team continues to attack Harris for her refusal to speak to the media since entering the presidential race last month.
Donald Trump appeared visibly irritated during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday when a reporter asked him about the size of the crowd that has attended Kamala Harris’ rally since she launched her campaign.
In the 18 days since the announcement, Harris has not answered a single media question, sat down for a single interview or held a single press conference, raising questions about how she will act off-script.
Meanwhile, Trump believes the media is trying to make Harris the media darling and has sent his vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance, to go after her for refusing to talk to reporters.
‘Listen, I had 107,000 people in New Jersey, you didn’t report it. I’m so glad you asked me, how many people do you have in your city? 2,000 people? If I ever had 2,000 people, you’d say my campaign is over.’
“The press is dishonest,” Trump said. “And here’s a great example. Just recently in Michigan, there were 25,000 people and we couldn’t get them in. In Harrisburg, there were 20,000 to 25,000 people, and 20,000 people couldn’t get in. There were so many… nobody ever mentions it.”
“And when she gets 1,500 people — and I saw it yesterday on ABC, they say, ‘Oh, the crowd was so big’ — I have 10, 20, 30 times that crowd,” Trump said. “And they never say the crowd was big. That’s why I always say, turn the cameras around.”
“I’m so glad you asked me that.”
Trump consistently draws several thousand supporters to his massive rallies and fills stadiums and other venues.
He said during the press conference that he gets crowds as big as Martin Luther King Jr.’s.
But Trump says the largest crowd he has ever spoken in front of was the one that gathered in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 to hear him speak during the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
The former president claimed his crowd was as big as the one drawn by civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., but said he was fine with people saying the slain leader had more than him because he respected him.
‘The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to was that day, and I tell you, it’s very hard to say.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with her new running mate, Governor Tim Walz, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday
“It’s the biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken in front of and I’ve spoken in front of the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken in front of bigger crowds than I have,” Trump told reporters at his Florida golf club.
“When we look at Martin Luther King, when he gave his great speech, and when we look at ours, it was all the same, the same amount of people, or maybe more,” he said. “And they said he had a million people, but I had 25,000 people.”
“Actually, my audience was bigger,” he continued. “They said I had 25,000 people and he had a million, and I have no problem with that, because I liked Dr. Martin Luther King.”
Earlier Thursday morning, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that Harris “pays” for people to attend her campaign events.