Trump Calls Crowd at Democratic Rally "Fake"

Did the Democrats fake a crowd in pictures and video with AI? Of course not—but that didn't stop Trump's fans on Twitter from believing and circulating yet another ridiculous lie.

Is Twitter really ready for the return of Donald Trump?

On Sunday, August 11, Trump claimed that a large crowd in a photograph of a Democratic rally in Dallas was fake, and that "there was nobody there!" He posted this on Truth Social, which was reposted on Twitter. The photograph showed a large crowd with Harris/Walz signs, with Air Force Two in the background.

Donald Trump claimed the crowd at a Democratic rally was fake.

In this age of social media stupidity, Trump didn't have to qualify his claim. He just pointed to the “alternative fact” in his delusional reality. Debunking this claim was child's play—there were plenty of other photographs of the rally online, as well as video footage of the entire crowd.

Dinesh D’Souza, conspiracy theorist hard at work, fails to understand that the power of a big zoom lens compresses depth of field.

Of course, that didn't stop conspiracy theorists from lashing out at the nasty cabal of Democrats who'd perpetrated this so-called stunt, this monstrous lie. Dinesh D'Souza, the maker of the conspiracy documuntary "2000 Mules", added kerosene to the fire. He posted a close crop of the plane from a similar photograph, with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz descending the plane's stairs. "Check the reflection in the plane," he wrote. "Does this look like a real picture to you?"

Uh, yes, it did. Someone had added two red circles at the locations of the supposed smoking gun, however—no reflections of the crowd on the plane's fusilage. That was enough to get the MAGA faithful frothing at the mouth.

In the meantime, a satire acount on Twitter called Snicklink created a video of Harris and Walz descending the stairs from Air Force Two. The video camera was in close enough that the crowd is not in the frame—only empty tarmac is in the foreground. Then—boom—a crowd and cheering sounds are added to the video. One of the signs held up by the crowd appears to say "Quayle"—an obvious tipoff that the video is fake. Oh my gosh, those devious Democrats!

Uh, if you look closely, you will clearly see that this video containing a fake crowd later in the footage, is labeled a satire.

This was the whole point, of course. It was satire. But the MAGA faithful aren't very good at seeing satire. They applaud it as truth. Take the Republican National Convention. The crowd cheered ethusiastically for a performer playing Hulk Hogan, who pretends to compete in wrestling matches that are completely choreographed. They applauded the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who peddled the election fraud lies that resulted in Fox forking over nearly $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems. In addition, Carlson also made a documentary urging men to boost their testosterone by using red light therapy on their testicles. This documentary, "The End of Men," essentially argued that saving male machismo would require that men put their testicles in a tanning booth. If these are things you believe, satire has been bludgeoned beyond recognition. Just to add another layer to the irony of Carlson being a defender of all things "macho", Carlson laughs like a little girl. And, he used to wear a bow tie.

But MAGA folks didn't realize they were being made to look like idiots. They were getting trolled by a satire—obiously labeled, not stealthy—but still, they couldn't figure out it was all a joke. I guess that when you believe in Trump (who is a total fraud and a joke), you can't even figure out what's real anymore. And that's exactly Trump's goal: To, once again, quote Steve Bannon: "Flood the zone with shit."

So there's the shit. Trump fans believed that there was no crowd at the Harris/Walz rally. Proving their lack of a bullshit filter, they reposted the satire as if it was proof of a Democratic swindle. Never mind that a bright yellow logo in the bottom right corner screamed "SATIRE". I think you can see why Trump wants to eliminate the Department of Education.

Sadly, America, the explanation for the "missing" reflections of the crowd on the plane was obvious. The MAGA faithful were too lazy to figure it out themselves. Why use a search engine when you can just have a meltdown on Twitter?

Here's the obvious: The photographer was far away and used a powerful zoom lens. High zoom magnifications compress depth of field. This gave the impression that the crowd was much closer to the plane on the tarmac than in real life. After what happened to Trump in Butler, PA, do the MAGA faithful really think the Secret Service should let a rally crowd that close to Air Force Two?

So, yes, we're back to this: Trump on Twitter, lying pathologically like the grifter he is.

Make no mistake: Trump is setting the stage for the next full-blown election fraud claim. Why not? Even though he lost more than 60 cases over the 2020 election, his MAGA faithful continue to believe that Trump won that election.

Never mind all the guilty pleas in the election fraud cases. Never mind Trump's own convictions on 34 counts of fraud, plus liability for sexual assault. Never mind that Trump-appointed judge Aileen Canon suddently threw out his classified documents case after she entertained delays on procedural grounds. It took her well over a year to figure out what wasn't clear to her at the outset, that special prosecutor Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed?

But, never mind all that. It must be true: Democrats are lying about the size of a political rally crowd—as if Donald Trump has never done that. Remember Sean Spicer?

I know Elon Musk wants me to call his social media channel X, like the letter once carved into the foreheads of Charles Manson's followers. But like Manson, Musk is a cult of personality. He can call his cars and his rockets whatever he wants. But Twitter will always be Twitter to me.