Trump Has a Wild New Theory for His Flagging Crowd Sizes

Donald Trump tried to blame Joe Biden for the small crowd size at one of his rallies this weekend.

A Trump rally in Wisconsin on Saturday was moved to an indoor location at the last minute, after the Secret Service said it could not properly staff an outdoor event, given that many of its agents were in New York providing security to dignitaries at the U.N. General Assembly.

Trump provided his own spin on the proceedings during a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sunday. The Republican nominee claimed that plans for a large rally the day before had been scrapped because the Biden administration “would not let us have the people” necessary to guard the event.

The former president claimed he’d been prevented from holding an outdoor rally in front of the 50,000 people who allegedly showed up, and instead had to settle for a smaller 1,000-person rally inside. So 49,000 people had just gone home, then? (The average size of a Trump rally is 5,600 people .)

“But we had 50,000 people that showed up, but they didn’t want me to be outside. They said they couldn’t get us enough people because they were guarding the United Nations, and Iran, the president of Iran is here,” Trump said, as the crowd booed.

During the presidential debate earlier this month, Kamala Harris urged viewers to attend a Trump rally and see for themselves that Trump’s crowds were smaller and attendees often left early due to “exhaustion and boredom.”

This line of attack seemed to get under Trump’s skin , to the point that he’s now trying to explain away the phenomenon. Trump claimed that people don’t “ever leave” his events, and that when they do, he finishes his speeches quickly. Many of Trump’s speeches, regardless of how late they start, can stretch on for upward of an hour.

Even in Erie, however, rallygoers standing behind Trump could be seen leaving the event early .