I'm honestly astonished when I see the photos of Trump's events and there are so few people present. I think the right is a minority, that their numbers are exaggerated. But, how is it that only a few dozen people at most come to an event in the middle of the US capital?
That's the turnout you'd expect from teens passing out flyers for their garage band, or for a neighborhood yard sale.
@foolishowl DC is a major urban center and most of his base lives far away from there and are too poor to travel.
@foolishowl I know what you mean, but remember that only like a little more than 1/5th/20% of of USians actually voted for him. And you gotta think at least some of those folks regret their votes by now. He very much won "by default." Really it's more like Harris lost than Trump won. Same deal with Clinton vs. Trump in 2016 too.
He's not actually very popular, the Democrats just keep running somehow even less popular candidates
@sidereal I'm bearing that in mind, but I think it's not just a function of his unpopularity. He's got to have more than a dozen supporters in the DC area. Even at the height of his popularity, his rallies had poor turnout and they kept trying to obscure that fact.
Contrast that with the No Kings rallies. There were a lot of things to criticize about them, including the oddly casual way they were promoted and organized. Yet they had substantial turnout.
I think Trump's events say something not just about his unpopularity, but about the profound passivity of his supporters.
@foolishowl True, I think he also got a lot of ill-conceived protest votes both times.
@foolishowl I'd be surprised if anyone on his staff knows how to run and market an event like this, or to do the work beforehand to see if anyone even wants it. He's more like a showy leader in a dictatorship, just unwilling (so far) to try to pay or threaten people into showing up. Nero vibes.
@foolishowl
I was thinking the same thing. Given even the most middling administration imaginable, I would think it would still be packed.
Turning the 250th anniversary of the country into DashCon 2014 is almost impressive.