President Donald Trump delivered his rally speech in Tennessee Saturday to entire sections of empty seats at the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, new video and photos of the rally revealed.
“President Trump’s crowd on a Saturday afternoon in Clarksville, Tennessee, near the Kentucky border, deep in the heart of Trump country,” wrote New York Times reporter Shawn McCreesh in a social media post on X, alongside a video showing entire seating sections devoid of attendees.
Reuters photographer Seth Herald also captured a photo featuring “a section of empty seats” at the arena while Trump delivered his rally speech, which was disrupted within minutes by a heckler.
Trump’s rally in Clarksville comes just weeks ahead of the midterms. Republicans have injected an “unprecedented flood of late ad spending” in “longtime Republican states and districts,” with Republicans increasingly distancing themselves from the president as his approval ratings continue to plummet to career lows amid his deeply unpopular war against Iran.
Near the beginning of the rally, Trump complained about what he argued was inadequate press coverage of his rally sizes, an increasingly frequent grievance. An analysis by The Daily Beast’s investigative unit PunchUp found that Trump’s latest rallies have been held in venues much smaller than those he filled during his first presidential campaign, and with crowds as much as 75% smaller.
Trump lashed out Monday at reports of thin crowds, insisting on Truth Social that one of his recent arenas was “totally MAXED OUT, including all upper sections.” The New York Times had reported “swaths of empty seats” at his rally in Mobile, Alabama, where he drew about 8,000 people to a 10,000-seat basketball arena. In 2015, he packed more than 30,000 into a football stadium in the same city.
President Trump’s crowd on a Saturday afternoon in Clarksville, Tennessee, near the Kentucky border, deep in the heart of Trump country. https://t.co/aAU4dXXf7V
— Shawn McCreesh (@ShawnMcCreesh) October 10, 2026