In the weeks leading up to Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the president received backlash for wanting to host his first rally of the year on Juneteenth in the city that was once home to Black Wall Street. He pushed the rally to June 20th, but that was not good enough for those who did not want the streets of Tulsa overthrown by his racist followers.
On June 15, Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce that nearly one million MAGA supporters would be attending his campaign rally in downtown Tulsa.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1272521253136498690?s=20
“Almost One Million people request tickets for the Saturday Night Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” he tweeted.
At every turn, he made it a point to brag about the huge attendance at his upcoming rally.
Compilation of people bragging about a million people signing up for the rally pic.twitter.com/X9EHPSvv8Z
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 21, 2020
In anticipation of such a large turnout, the BOK Center, which only has a capacity of 19,200, created an outdoor overflow stage to accommodate additional attendees who would not be able to fit inside the event space. However, what they didn’t know, is that they wouldn’t be needing the extra space. In fact, under 6,200 Trump supporters would be attending the rally thanks to a bunch of proactive teens on social media.
Gen Z took to TikTok to announce that they registered for tickets to Trump’s rally and instead of actually going, they’d be doing more important things with their time. It quickly became a viral trend on the app.
@thiqbishDuet your confirmation that you took seats to the trump rally (which I’m tOOTTTALLLY going to use wink wink)with @indiefilmprotagonist ##greenscreen♬ Macarena – Bass Bumpers Remix Radio Edit – Los Del Rio
A thread of some of the TikTokers/Zoomers who reserved tickets to Trump’s rally to shrink the crowd today in Oklahoma 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/ITz4NAbeTD
— Jenna Amatulli (@ohheyjenna) June 21, 2020
Even older TikTokers got involved in the cause.
Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old grandmother living in Fort Dodge, Iowa, appears to have helped led the charge on TikTok late last week when she posted a video encouraging people to go to Trump's website, register to attend the event & then not show up. @NicolleDWallace @cspanwj pic.twitter.com/tKwT0OjEkj
— Jack Hutton 🇺🇸 🌻 (@jackhutton) June 21, 2020
Things really took off when K-Pop fans got ahold of the trend.
this is the only post of the video i could find on here but kpop fans and tiktok users combined sold out the rally tickets after finding out it was free lmaoo https://t.co/iLgOaCacfN
— ikran is ooo (@ikran) June 21, 2020
People all over the country, young, old, Black, and white, registered for a set of tickets and watched the event fall apart from the comfort of their homes.
Are there a bunch. I registered and got 2 tickets and left them hoes on pause.
— El Jefe (@BigSDot) June 20, 2020
The result of their efforts was tons of empty seats in the arena and the overflow stage being taken down before the event even started. Embarrassing!
lmaao the wiggles sold this stadium out in 2009
— soul nate (@MNateShyamalan) June 21, 2020
BREAKING via @CNN: Trump cancels his planned address to the "overflow crowd" because nearly no one showed up. pic.twitter.com/vrIQLhTEkL
— Matt Rogers 🎃 (@Politidope) June 20, 2020
While the TikTokers didn’t stop others from being able to get tickets or attend the rally if they really wanted to, the creative bunch certainly inflated the number of attendees and fooled Donald Trump’s team into thinking more people would be showing up. In the words of Chloe x Halle, “the kids are alright” and this just proved it.
