Did you hear the one about the Donald Trump Tulsa rally? Yes, this is actually the beginning of a joke — except Trump’s not laughing!
Top News Today
It’s the fear of every kid in America: throwing a party and no one shows up to attend. Now, it’s Donald Trump’s reality.
All week long, the Trump campaign bragged that millions of Americans had RSVP’d to attend ‘The Donald’s’ first political rally since COVID-19 put an end to large gatherings. Trump disciples camped outside the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma for an entire week just to assure a front-row seat to see their king. When the RSVP’s shot through the roof, the campaign set up an overflow stage outside the arena — complete with snowcone machines and Trump paraphernalia — so that thousands of MAGA supporters could hear a brief few words from Trump himself prior to the rally, then watch the indoor action on 2 jumbotrons.
.
“We’re going to be in Oklahoma. And it’s a crowd like, I guess, nobody’s seen before. We have tremendous, tremendous requests for tickets like, I think, probably has never happened politically before.” – Donald J. Trump
.
Coronavirus pandemic and face masks be damned. ‘The Donald’ and his big Tulsa rally was about to be a huge hit.
Donald Trump arranged for Air Force One to fly low over the BOK Center on his arrival so that the thousands he expected outside could get a “rock star” glimpse of their great white savior coming to town. However, Trump was shocked when he saw only a dozen or so standing outside at the makeshift stage. The outside event was then abruptly canceled for lack of enthusiasm.
Once inside the 19,000 seat arena, Trump was met with an even more shocking reality: literally, thousands of empty blue seats and a main floor nearly 3/4ths shy of its full standing capacity (The Tulsa fire marshall has since calculated the crowd at 6,200 attendees).
Something had gone horribly wrong.
“The Great American Comeback Celebration’s almost here. There’s still space!” the campaign tweeted out in a desperate attempt to salvage the event and prevent the thin-skinned Trump from going berserk on the flight back to Washington.
As Trump launched into rambling remarks about being able to drink a glass of water with one hand and how slippery the ramp was for him at West Point, it became evident to the campaign staff that the crowd they expected was not going to materialize and that somehow, their expectations had been grossly inflated.
Outside, a work crew attempted to silently dismantle the makeshift stage and barricades where thousands were expected but never showed. As CNN and other news agencies broadcast the empty scene on live television, the Secret Service was dispatched by the campaign to “get them out of there.”
Totally embarrassed and disheartened at the pitiful optics for what was to have been Trump’s glorious return to the campaign trail, the spin-machine and blame-game kicked into high gear.
“Sadly, protestors interfered with supporters, even blocking access to the metal detectors, which prevented people from entering the rally,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said in a face-saving attempt to prevent ‘The Donald’ from appearing as a failure. “Radical protestors, coupled with a relentless onslaught from the media, attempted to frighten off the President’s supporters. We are proud of the thousands who stuck it out.”
Unfortunately, filmed footage from myriad news crews captured no such protesters “blocking” the underwhelming crowd from freely walking into the BOK Center.
Then, despite a last-ditch effort by Trump and his team to create another “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period” moment with their own alternate reality, the writing was on the wall and the live television footage could not be manipulated. The Trump Tulsa rally was a bust!
.
Paging Sean Spicer for a crowd estimate in Tulsa
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) June 20, 2020
I think I sold that same place out in five minutes. 😹 #donkeyshow pic.twitter.com/JNOwjIQ3hB
— P!nk (@Pink) June 21, 2020
.
.
So, what happened to the supposed “Welcome Back” dud of a party? Teenagers, K-Pop fans, and an online TikTok challenge, that’s what.
According to The New York Times, the American youth of Generation Z did their part to “Make America Great Again” by arranging a social media prank against ‘The Donald’ and ordering hundreds of thousands of rally tickets they never intended to use. Their political prank created gigantic expectations within the Trump campaign and their efforts went off without a hitch.
“Oh no, I signed up for a Trump rally, and I can’t go,” one girl joked (along with a fake cough) in a TikTok video she posted online.
Yes, teens from across the country spent days on end with friends ordering thousands upon thousands of tickets to the Tulsa rally — even signing the waiver promising not to sue Trump if they contracted the coronavirus. Then, when rally day came, they didn’t. The end result was a half-empty arena and Donald Trump left with egg on his face.
After the rally, social media was lit up with congratulatory remarks and high-fives for pulling off the epic caper.
“The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump,” tweeted longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. “You just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on Twitter.
Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID
Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud. ☺️ https://t.co/jGrp5bSZ9T
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
.
This is what happened tonight. I’m dead serious when I say this. The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump. All across America teens ordered tickets to this event. The fools on the campaign bragged about a million tickets. lol. @ProjectLincoln.
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2020
.
“There are teenagers in this country who participated in this little no-show protest, who believe that they can have an impact in their country in the political system even though they’re not old enough to vote right now,” said Mary Jo Laupp of Fort Dodge, Iowa, who helped concoct the idea.
.
.
First, they marched arm in arm during the Black Lives Matter protests and now, the youth of America has struck again by “raining” on Trump’s Tulsa rally “parade.”
Now THAT’S what you call helping to make America “great” again!
.
Beginning in my mid 20s, I decided to sit myself down and educate myself about the Civil Rights Movement. I was raised by a mother who had a veracious appetite for reading and mom had quite a collection of books on many subjects – the two main topics of interest being American History and Black History. Honestly, from that time until now, I’ve never stopped reading any good book I can get my hands on regarding Black history, especially the Civil Rights Movement. And one of the things that struck me early on in learning about the Civil Rights Movement was the vital roll that young people (overwhelmingly Black but also Jewish) eventually played in that Movement. Indeed some of them paid for their involvement with their very lives. SEE: The murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner aka “the Freedom Summer murders” in Neshoba County, Mississippi in… Read more »