Veteran journalist Dan Rather argues that Donald Trump “can’t fill a room like he used to,” and says the president’s reaction to reports on his crowds shows how rattled he is.
In a Substack commentary, Rather writes that Trump has staged 17 rallies recently and plans five more before Election Day, a “traveling circus” with Trump as “the only star.” He says venues have shrunk as crowds have thinned, citing Semafor’s account of a Youngstown, Ohio, arena with room for 7,000 that was only half full.
"His stump speeches are not tailored to the candidate for whom he is campaigning. They are a rambling dissertation on him, and an excuse to be fawned over," Rather wrote.
Trump rejected that, insisting he never has empty seats, and then demanded the New York Times be arrested for reporting otherwise.
Rather also cites The Independent as reporting that hecklers constantly interrupt Trump, whom he compared to rioters in France. And he argues the White House is steering the president to places like Lubbock, Texas, where Trump won big in 2024, to guarantee packed crowds, even as the president visits North Carolina and Georgia, where the RNC has reportedly given up on Senate seats.
He criticizes Trump’s offers tied to Republican wins, from Camp Lejeune settlements to ethanol rules, and his clashes with reporters, including calling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins a “dummy” and a White House move to remove The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg from the press pool.
Rather concludes that on November 3, “we’ll see if all the broken promises matter.”
Trump has always prided himself on his rally sizes, and even when they were larger at the start of his political career, would tend to overinflate the attendance.