Jimmy Kimmel punctures Trump’s obsession with his rallies with hilarious quip and foootage of empty seats

Jimmy Kimmel showcased footage of a mostly empty venue, highlighting the contrast between Trump's claims and reality
PUBLISHED SEP 21, 2024
Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at Donald Trump’s obsession with crowd sizes on a recent episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' (Getty images)
Jimmy Kimmel poked fun at Donald Trump’s obsession with crowd sizes on a recent episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' (Getty images)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jimmy Kimmel took aim at Donald Trump’s fixation on crowd sizes during a recent episode of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'.

The former president, speaking at a rally in Uniondale, Long Island, claimed he attracts larger crowds than Elvis Presley, saying, “So I call up my wife, and I’d say, ‘Baby, who can draw crowds like me?' Nobody, nobody can. I’m the greatest of all time, maybe greater even than Elvis. Elvis had a guitar. I don’t have the privilege of a guitar.”

Jimmy Kimmel hilariously highlights Trump's crowd size delusions with empty rally footage

Kimmel quipped, “Thanks to my tiny baby hands, I am unable to play the guitar,” before adding that while Trump boasted about his crowds, attendees were actually leaving the arena.

He showcased footage of the half-empty venue, humorously noting, “This is how his big rally wrapped up in Uniondale. Elvis hadn’t left the building, but half the crowd had.”



 

While police estimated attendance at 50,000 for the rally — one of the largest of Trump’s re-election campaign, Kimmel highlighted Trump’s increasing fixation on crowd numbers.

He recalled a previous instance where Trump erroneously claimed that attendance at his January 6 rally matched that of Martin Luther King Jr's historic speech, stating, “He falsely declared that attendance at his rally on January 6, 2021 — prior to the attack on the Capitol — rivaled the size of the crowd that Martin Luther King Jr drew to watch his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in August 1963.”

Jimmy Kimmel takes aim at Trump’s crowd size obsession

Kimmel also revisited a moment from the first presidential debate, where Vice President Kamala Harris suggested Trump’s supporters leave rallies early due to “exhaustion and boredom.” Trump responded defensively, asserting, “People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media after his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 20, 2024 in New York City. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Mark Peterson - Pool/Getty Images)
Jimmy Kimmel mocks Trump’s crowd size fixation, referencing Kamala Harris' jab about early exits from his rallies (Photo by Mark Peterson - Pool/Getty Images)

The host further critiqued Trump’s interview on Fox News, in which he complained that the ABC debate moderators fact-checked “everything I said.” Trump claimed, “And the audience, they went crazy,” but Kimmel interrupted to state, “There was no audience.”

He emphasized, “The debate was held in an empty room. There was no audience. I mean, is he losing his mind, or does he lie so automatically he doesn’t even know it anymore?”

Kimmel concluded by questioning whether Trump was losing touch with reality or if his habitual exaggerations had become second nature. “At least in the past, when he exaggerated the size of the crowd, there was a crowd,” Kimmel remarked.

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