Top Line
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed the crowd that gathered to watch Vice President Kamala Harris arrive at a Michigan airport for a campaign rally was “fake” and that Harris’ campaign used artificial intelligence to hide the fact that “there was no one there” – a claim that was refuted by images, videos and descriptions of the rally.
A photo taken by Harris campaign staff shows the crowd at her Michigan rally.
Harris’ campaign
Key Facts
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said “there was nobody there” when Harris arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport last week and that he “misbehaved at the airport.” He shared an image of supporters welcoming Harris at her plane which he claimed was AI-generated, repeating claims that have been circulating on social media in recent days.
There’s no evidence that the image shared by Trump was doctored: Harris’ campaign told Forbes that the photo was taken by campaign staff at a rally and wasn’t altered using artificial intelligence. (The campaign also tweeted that it was a “real photo.”)
Trump’s claim that “no one” was there at Harris’ rally is also contradicted by photos, videos and independent reports, including at least one local outlet and The Associated Press, which estimated that about 15,000 people attended the rally, which took place in an airport hangar.
Multiple media outlets, including the Detroit Free Press, MLive, The Detroit News, The Associated Press and Getty Images, shared photos and galleries showing large crowds supporting Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at Wednesday’s rally.
There was also video footage taken from multiple angles of Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz arriving at the rally and disembarking from a plane in front of a cheering crowd, filmed by NBC News and broadcast on PBS and C-SPAN.
Forbes has reached out to the Trump campaign and the Wayne County Airport Authority for comment.
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Important Quotes
Trump has baselessly accused Harris of election interference, insinuating without evidence that she faked crowds at other rallies. “The same thing is happening with the fake ‘crowds’ at her rallies,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “Creating a fake image is election interference and she should be disqualified. Anyone who does that is cheating on everything!”
Main Background
Trump and his campaign have long bragged about the size of his rallies and events. After the 2017 inauguration, then-press secretary Sean Spicer said it was “the largest crowd ever to witness an inauguration,” but PolitiFact found this to be “completely false.” Trump recently claimed that the crowd he spoke to near the White House on January 6, 2021, was comparable to the crowd that Martin Luther King Jr. drew when he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. The New York Times fact-checked Trump’s claim and found it to be untrue. The paper wrote that King’s speech drew about 250,000 people, while Trump’s January 6 speech drew an estimated 53,000 people. Democrats have taken issue with Trump’s obsession with crowds, especially since Harris has reportedly drawn larger crowds than President Joe Biden during his campaign. “Nobody cares about the size of the crowd,” a smiling Walz said in Arizona on Friday after praising the size of the crowds in Michigan earlier last week, according to The Washington Post.
tangent
While the November election is expected to be a close one, Harris has been catching up with Trump in recent polls. According to the latest New York Times/Siena Poll conducted from August 5-9, Harris is currently leading in three key battleground states: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
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