Trucker convoy permit indicates far fewer people will show up

The convoy of truckers headed to Washington, D.C for a protest similar to that in Ottawa seems to have been significantly reduced.

The Daily Beast spoke to rally organizers, who initially requested "hopefully" 3,000 people would show up. The permit was approved late Monday for the far-right, anti-vaccine protest that is scheduled to take place ahead of the State of the Union Address.

The organizer, Kyle Sefcik, explained that the Parks Service permit now lists "fewer than 500" participants.

“Permittee has amended his application to reduce the expected maximum crowd size to less than 500 attendees,” the report the permit read.

It is consistent with previous reports of many of the truckers abandoning their efforts. One Pennsylvania trucker tried to find someone to join him last week. Even after he was able to collect some allies, they turned back. The California group set out last week but didn't expect to even make it in time for the rally. The overwhelming majority turned back once they hit Arizona, at the end of the first day. Another California convoy was headed to Salt Lake City, Denver and then on to Washington.

“There are two other convoys that have massive turnouts, and are in progress to the D.C. area as we speak,” organizers wrote on Facebook early Saturday, the New York Times captured. “We are making the decision to send any truckers planned to meet at our routes to start heading to D.C. for the event on the National Mall, or to join the convoys named above as they are about to merge into one."

The Best reported that Sefcik's application had problems because he answered the questions with his own questions for the government. Also his handwriting was "extremely messy," said the report.

One question asked about tasks volunteers might perform. Sefcik replied by asking, "Do we need them?"

When the Best had questions, Sefcik said he has done "events my whole life, huge ones" but he "wanted to see if we needed certain people."

"Brother, all I can say is that we both know that it was seen by a lot of people in the United States, and I’m not talking numbers, but let’s just say I know that people will be there."

He also said he's never worked that hard on a permit before in his life.

Read the full report at the Daily Beast