Pro-Trump Utah event flops after only 1,000 show up with promoters expecting 10,000: report

According to a report from the Salt Lake Tribune, a two-day pro-Donald Trump event that commenced at the Salt Palace Convention Center was filled with more empty chairs than attendees on its first day.

The promoters behind the Western Conservative Action Network, or WeCANact event, that promised former White House official Michael Flynn as a headliner, had boasted that they expected 10,000 participants, but the Tribune reported that about 1000 showed up to hear about the fight against, "socialist, communist, and Marxist ideologies" in government and schools.

According to the Tribune's report, "The event did focus on that promise, but also offered up a large helping of misinformation about COVID-19, vaccines and the 2020 election. And, to top off the fringe political buffet, there were lots of references to the QAnon conspiracy theory."

To make the point about the small turnout, the Tribune included a photo from the hall showing row upon row upon row of empty seats.

As for what the few who showed up heard, the Tribune's Bryann Schott wrote: "The falsehoods and half-truths flew fast and furious Friday. A favorite target for speakers was the COVID-19 pandemic and any protective measures taken to stop the spread of the virus that has killed more than 720,000 Americans," he wrote before adding, "Other speakers spent time promoting unproven alternative cures for the virus."

Schott added, "More than a few speakers referred to anything they viewed as the enemy as communist or Marxist. Leigh Dundas, who cheered on the crowd who attacked Congress during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, warned the crowd that a plot launched by former Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev to replace the U.S. government with a communist dictatorship was coming to fruition."

"This is how a communist totalitarian takeover starts. They make divorce easy. They want to normalize deviant sexual practices. They want to get rid of obscenity laws and frame anyone who opposes that as against free speech. They want to get rid of prayer in schools," Dundas told the small crowd.

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