Trump Melts Down Over Crowd Sizes, Claims Harris’s Rally Was Fake AI

In recent weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged prominently on the Democratic party’s presidential ticket, capturing considerable attention. This has also seemed to irk former President Donald Trump, particularly regarding the size of her crowds at campaign events.

Trump has been known to obsess over crowd sizes, a fixation that dates back to his inauguration in 2017, which he wildly inflated. Just last week, he made the dubious claim that his rally on January 6, 2021, attracted a larger crowd than Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

As Trump ramped up his criticism of Harris, he claimed that the large turnout at a Harris-Walz rally at Detroit Metro Airport was “fake” and alleged that the images circulating were generated by artificial intelligence. Despite these assertions, around 15,000 people were present, as clearly evidenced by photos, videos, and live coverage of the event.

In a vehement social media outburst, Trump insisted that the crowd supporting Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, “didn’t exist,” and lamented about their absence while calling for Harris’s disqualification from the presidential race.

“Look, we caught her with a fake ‘crowd.’ There was nobody there!” Trump declared in a post on Truth Social, which accompanied a photo from the Michigan rally. In another post, he accused Harris’s team of using AI to embellish the size of the crowd.

He further claimed, “Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!” Trump maintained that a maintenance worker at the airport confirmed the nonexistence of the crowd after noting the supposed fake crowd picture.

His commentary continued with accusations that Harris had staged the event, saying, “She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches.”

However, the reality of the crowd size was well-documented, with numerous photographs taken by both attendees and journalists, affirming the turnout. Andrew Harnik, a Getty Images photographer who covered the rally, stated that there was no evidence of photo manipulation.

“It was a large crowd, and the pictures that I took that are on the Getty website speak to that,” Harnik reported.

Furthermore, an analysis by Winston AI Detector concluded that the image was “96 percent human,” dismissing the notion that AI had been utilized to enhance the photo, as confirmed by fact-checking site Snopes. Another investigation by Spectrum News affirmed, “The crowd did in fact exist and the rally was attended by thousands of people.”

In response to Trump’s conspiracy theories, Harris’s campaign team quickly acted to dispel the claims. They shared an actual image from the rally, emphasizing that it depicted a genuine gathering of 15,000 supporters.

California Representative Ted Lieu weighed in on the controversy, calling Trump’s comments fantastical. He remarked that the former president “is not suited for office in any way whatsoever,” and further suggested that Trump was “really going bonkers off the edge into dementia land.”

Lavora Barnes, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, also poked fun at Trump’s claims, tweeting about the “AI crowd” being particularly loud, humorously noting her ears still ringing from the “imaginary cheering.”

These comments are particularly interesting in light of Trump’s previous misleading statements regarding crowd sizes, including a recent assertion during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, where he claimed that his January 6 rally had a larger audience than MLK’s March on Washington, which saw an estimated 250,000 participants—outnumbering Trump’s crowd of about 53,000.

As Harris and Walz continue to draw impressive crowds, notably Harris gathering 8,000 at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, and 14,000 in Philadelphia after Walz joined the ticket, Trump’s focus on their crowd sizes appears to indicate his growing concern.

Harris’s campaign momentum is undeniably increasing, as seen in recent polling that shows her leading Trump by four points in critical swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, according to a new survey from The New York Times.

The Trump campaign has yet to publicly comment on these developments.