Trump gripes about Harris crowd sizes, fact-checks
The former president falsely claimed Kamala Harris is using AI to make her crowds look bigger
What happened
Donald Trump on Sunday falsely claimed that his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris digitally manipulated photos of her recent Detroit rally to make the crowd, estimated at 15,000, look larger.
Who said what
"Kamala CHEATED" and "'A.I.'d'" a photo of a crowd greeting her airplane, Trump wrote in one of several Truth Social posts on the subject. "She had NOBODY waiting, and the 'crowd' looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake 'crowds' at her speeches." Trump "appeared to have fallen for a far-right conspiracy theory — one easily disproved by photos and videos captured by attendees and media," CNN said.
Trump also threatened to sue The New York Times for disputing a story he told Thursday about an emergency helicopter landing with former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown in the 1990s. Brown said that never happened, and the Times suggested Trump was remembering an uneventful 2018 helicopter ride with former California Gov. Jerry Brown. But former Los Angeles city councilor Nate Holden told Politico late Friday it was him in the emergency landing with Trump, in 1990. A former Trump employee confirmed Holden's story. "Willie is the short Black guy living in San Francisco," Holden said. "I'm a tall Black guy living in Los Angeles."
What next?
The Harris campaign has "begun to mock" Trump for his "obsession with the large crowds" she's drawing, the Times said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Switzerland could vote to cap its populationUnder the Radar Swiss People’s Party proposes referendum on radical anti-immigration measure to limit residents to 10 million
-
Political cartoons for February 15Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include political ventriloquism, Europe in the middle, and more
-
The broken water companies failing England and WalesExplainer With rising bills, deteriorating river health and a lack of investment, regulators face an uphill battle to stabilise the industry
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
-
Bondi, Democrats clash over Epstein in hearingSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi ignored survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and demanded that Democrats apologize to Trump
-
Judge blocks Trump suit for Michigan voter rollsSpeed Read A Trump-appointed federal judge rejected the administration’s demand for voters’ personal data
-
US to send 200 troops to Nigeria to train armySpeed Read Trump has accused the West African government of failing to protect Christians from terrorist attacks
-
Grand jury rejects charging 6 Democrats for ‘orders’ videoSpeed Read The jury refused to indict Democratic lawmakers for a video in which they urged military members to resist illegal orders
-
Trump links funding to name on Penn StationSpeed Read Trump “can restart the funding with a snap of his fingers,” a Schumer insider said
-
Trump reclassifies 50,000 federal jobs to ease firingsSpeed Read The rule strips longstanding job protections from federal workers
