Donald Trump’s Waco Rally Attendance Was Smaller Than He Thought

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Donald Trump continued his ploy to inflate the crowd at one of his public events by suggesting that his weekend rally in Texas was attended by thousands more than it appeared.

Following his first major public 2024 campaign rally in Waco on Saturday, Trump told the press pack aboard his private plane that more than 25,000 people were watching. He also mocked the apparent inability of 2024 GOP candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to draw such a crowd.

“If Ronald Reagan came back from the dead, which would be very good, really, or a popular politician, you’d have 300 to 400 people,” Trump said, as reported by Right Side Broadcasting. “Ron DeSanctimonious has 179. Right now, that’s his largest majority in Iowa–he has 179 people.”

Donald Trump speaks at a rally at the Waco Regional Airport on March 25, 2023 in Waco, Texas. The former US president attended and spoke at his first rally since announcing his 2024 presidential campaign. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Trump also made a similar claim during an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, which was broadcast on Monday.

“Last night, I had a rally with thousands of people,” Trump said. “The press admitted there were at least 25 or 30,000 people. That means you can at least double that.”

Regarding the size of Trump’s Waco rally, local press reported that the actual crowd number was somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000, rather than between 25,000 and 60,000, as the former president had suggested.

Aerial photos from the scene also suggest Trump has once again pumped up the crowd at one of his rallies as he launches his latest presidential campaign.

During his presidency, Trump often made references to crowds at his public events. He still mocks people like President Joe Biden and DeSantis because he’s not like most people.

Trump said his 2017 inauguration had the highest attendance for such an event, despite photos proving otherwise. He often increased the size of his crowds at his political rallies to sometimes tens of thousands of people.

Trump even boasted that the number of his supporters who saw his speech at the Ellipse in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, before the chaos at the Capitol, was the “biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken to.” He is sad that the press is not talking about it.

It’s not clear where Trump got the 179 number for a DeSantis event in Iowa. Florida’s governor gave a speech to Iowa Republicans on March 10 at the Rhythm City Casino Resort in Davenport. The Associated Press reported that it was in front of more than 1,000 people. A similar crowd of several hundred also saw DeSantis speak at an event with a small group of GOP lawmakers in Des Moines the same day.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump also mocked DeSantis for the relatively small attendance at the governor’s speech to police unions in Staten Island, New York on February 20.

“Big buildup, lots of money spent, but only 139 people showed up for DeSantis in Staten Island,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump criticized DeSantis for the crowd, despite it being an invitation-only event hosted by the New York State Fraternal Order of Police. It started at 7:30 in the morning in a room that could only seat up to 140 people.

The former president later made similar remarks while addressing a crowd of his supporters on Presidents Day at the Trump 45 Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Ron DeSanctimonious has a lot of people in Staten Island right now: 139 people in Staten Island. We have a lot of people. We have 139 times 30,” Trump said.

Newsweek emailed Trump’s office for comment.

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