Comparison of crowd sizes at Barack Obama and Donald Trump campaign rally: photos
President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama held rival campaign rallies in Ohio and Georgia on Wednesday, supporting opposing candidates in closely watched races just six days before the midterm elections.
Trump spoke at the Shoemaker Center at Ohio University in Chillicothe in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted.
Walter Curt, a conservative-leaning commentator, shared video and photos from the rally, writing on X: “Outside the Chillicothe rally. Completely packed inside. President Trump is arriving to speak shortly.”
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Although no official attendance figures have been released for either rally, WBNS-TV in Columbus reported that approximately 2,500 people attended the Ohio rally. According to the Ohio University website, the Shoemaker Center can accommodate “approximately 2,400 spectators.”
Meanwhile, Obama spoke at Southlake Arena, south of Atlanta, in Morrow, in support of Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor running for Georgia governor.
The gathering brought together between 3,500 and 4,000 people, according to The Guardian. Southlake Arena can accommodate more than 8,000 people but contains multiple facilities under one roof.
Seth Taylor, a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, shared images on X before and during the rally.
“I’m waiting in line outside the Obama-Ossoff-KLB rally here in Clayton County, Georgia. The doors don’t open until 4 p.m. and this crowd is already way bigger than any Trump rally here in Georgia. Let’s go!!!,” he wrote.
Later, from inside the rally, Taylor wrote: “My view from the nosebleeds inside the Obama-Ossoff-KLB rally here in Clayton County, Georgia. There are around 10,000 people inside the arena! Let’s go!
News week contacted the White House and Obama for comment outside of normal business hours.
What happened during the rallies
Trump and Obama are holding rallies ahead of the midterm elections that will determine which party controls the Senate and House, as well as many governor’s offices. If Trump loses either house of Congress, it will hamper his ability to pass legislation in the final two years of his second term.
During his speech, Trump was heckled by a protester over his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The president responded: “I kicked Epstein out of a club 20 years ago because I thought he was crazy. »
Trump previously said he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago private club for being a “dirty guy” and hiring members of his staff without permission. There is no evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s illegal activities.
Photographs taken by Getty photographers showed Trump speaking to a crowd surrounding him on all four sides, from a center stage.
Meanwhile, at his Georgia rally, Obama described the Trump administration as having “unserious people,” adding, “And we’re all paying the price for their unseriousness.”
Obama also criticized Trump’s response to a comment he made at a rally in Cleveland last week, when he said the president’s White House renovations had “made the White House look like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory.”
In response, Trump said Obama had been “a bad president”, adding: “I took care of the White House. I fixed it with the best craftsmen in the world.”
At the Georgia rally, Obama responded by saying, “They’ve mobilized the entire government to respond to this joke – not to inflation, but to this joke.” The Saddam Hussein affair did not bother him. But he was very upset with the Cheesecake Factory. »
Photos from the event captured by Getty showed Obama standing in front of a large crowd on two levels.
Trump versus Obama rallies
Trump has a history of comparing the size of his rallies to those of various rivals, particularly Obama.
At a rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday, Trump commented on a rival Obama event in Michigan. He said: “You know, I saw that Barack Hussein Obama was in Michigan and the place was empty. And they were like, ‘Oh, it’s a big crowd coming, people are sneaking in.’ They don’t talk about my crowds, they never talk about them.
Trump has a habit of including Obama’s middle name when mentioning the former president, in what critics see as an attempt to make him seem more Islamic.
Obama’s Michigan rally was held at the Cass Technical High School gymnasium and media reports from the event showed a good turnout, with one commentator saying there was also an overflow crowd. The main gymnasium has a capacity of 3,000 people, with capacity to accommodate approximately 4,300 people, including overflow areas, for major events such as political rallies.
In January 2017, Trump said his first presidential inauguration was attended by a crowd that looked like “a million and a half people,” with then-press secretary Sean Spicer saying it was the best-attended inauguration in U.S. history.
However, a study by FactCheck.org, an independent organization, concluded that the crowds were significantly smaller than those at Obama’s first presidential inauguration in 2009.
They said: “Side-by-side photos of the 2017 inauguration crowds and the 2009 inauguration crowds on the National Mall show a notable difference, with the 2009 crowds filling more of the space, from the perspective of the Washington Monument facing the Capitol. »
Contact Newsweek editors about this story: John Fitzpatrick And Dave Siminoff.
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