Harris rally draws thousands in Michigan, Trump spreads falsehoods about crowd

Former President Donald Trump falsely accused Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign of using artificial intelligence to manipulate images of the size of the crowds at her Michigan rally with running mate Gov. Tim Walz, D- Minn., on Sunday, Aug. 11. While referring to an image of a large crowd on a tarmac in Michigan, Trump posted the false accusations.

“Has anyone noticed that Kamala cheated at the airport?” Trump posted on Truth Social. “There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and it showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!”

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“Harris should be disqualified because of the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” Trump added. “Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!”

The Harris Campaign denied any manipulation of photographs and maintained that the crowd was 15,000 people strong. Attendees also posted to social media verifying that thousands of supporters were at the event.

The Harris Campaign also responded to Trump’s false accusations on Truth Social. It posted a video of the Air Force Two on the tarmac with a large crowd awaiting Harris and Walz.

“In case you forgot @RealDonaldTrump: This is what a rally in a swing state looks like,” the caption on the social media post read.

Trump did not hold rallies in any swing states last week, instead campaigning in Montana. However, Trump falsely claimed that his crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, was larger than Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a dream speech” in 1963.

“Nobody’s spoken to crowd’s bigger than me,” Trump wrote.

This is not new territory for the former president. Following his inauguration in 2017, the Trump administration falsely touted the crowd as “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration.” News outlets were quick to point out that side-by-side images compared to former President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 showed a much larger crowd when compared to Trump’s.

Some Republicans criticized Trump’s fascination with attendance at rallies.

“Stop questioning the size of her [Kamala Harris] crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do when she was attorney general on crime,” former Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said during an interview on Fox News.

Walz also seized on Trump’s fixation on crowd size before the post on Truth Social on Sunday.

“You know, it’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything,” Walz said in Arizona on Friday, Aug. 9.