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By Aila Slisco
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Former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, prompting fans of the former president to draw immediate crowd size comparisons with Vice President Kamala Harris' rally at the same venue.
Harris, who officially became her party's presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Thursday, spoke to over 15,000 supporters at Phoenix's Desert Diamond Arena on August 9, according to The Arizona Republic. The venue has a maximum listed seating capacity of 19,000.
The number of spectators at the former president's rally on Friday was not immediately clear. However, the Trump campaign and supporters were quick to claim that the event—which featured Trump's first joint appearance with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who endorsed him earlier in the day—dwarfed the Harris rally.
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"It is crystal clear that President Trump's rally overshadowed Comrade Kamala's rally, which had to be draped off because of empty seats," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in an email to Newsweek.
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"Arizona - You are AMAZING! Look at this crowd for @realDonaldTrump!" Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski wrote while sharing an image of the event from a wide angle on X, formerly Twitter.
"After a week of the Fake News & Democrat Party desperately trying to repackage and astroturf energy for Kamala Harris, it's great to walk into a room full of REAL passion, energy, and support for President Trump," he added.
"Unbelievable. Arizona is MAGA Country," wrote Turning Point Action National Enterprise Director Brett Galaszewski while sharing an image, also from a wide angle.
"This is the crowd for Trump's speech in Phoenix," Owen Shroyer, host on the Infowars network of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, wrote while sharing several images. "Exact same venue as Harris just 2 weeks ago, when her event cut the floor in half & had the upper bowl blocked (image included). No performer needed for Trump. They went crazy over her crowd, wonder what they'll say about Trump's?"
The comparison images shared by Shroyer featured wide-angle images of the Trump event and close-up images purportedly taken at the Harris event.
While other images of the Harris event do show that some sections, but not all, of the upper deck area were blocked off, they also show a large crowd was present and do not show that the floor was "cut in half."
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The Trump campaign reportedly blanketed local airwaves and social media with ads, urging supporters to attend the "historic" Phoenix rally in the days before it took place, while the Harris campaign did no paid advertising to promote her rally.
NBC News journalist Alex Tabet shared videos on X taken at both rallies, showing sections of the upper arena blocked off at the Harris rally as the camera pans. The Trump video also appears to show one section of the upper arena blocked off.
Based on images showing that both events featured few empty seats and more sections of the upper arena blocked off during the Harris rally, it seems plausible that the Trump rally had a larger attendance, although both rallies were well-attended.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Harris campaign via email on Friday night.
Trump frequently boasts about his rally crowd sizes, including sometimes artificially inflating the number of people who possibly could have been in attendance.
Recent well-attended Harris campaign rallies have seemingly struck a nerve with the former president. Earlier this month, Trump made false claims about the Democratic ticket using artificial intelligence to fake large crowd sizes.
Trump got bad news about another one of his favorite popularity metrics this week, with television ratings for the DNC significantly outperforming last month's Republican National Convention.
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