President Trump flew to Tulsa on Saturday for his first rally in months, and The Late Show summed up how it went Monday night in an homage to Oklahoma.
"Saturday night's rally was supposed to be Trump's big moment," Stephen Colbert said. His campaign "was so overconfident about the attendance, they built an 'overflow' stage outside" for 40,000 excess Trump fans. "Instead, the crowd was 25 people," he said. "To put this disaster in perspective, the arena Trump spoke in can hold more than 19,000 people, but only 6,200 people attended. That's one-third capacity! Now I don't want to be a glass-half-empty kind of guy, but half empty would be a huge improvement."
"Aw, poor Trump," Trevor Noah deadpanned at The Daily Show. "For somebody who was born into wealth and never suffered a single consequence for his actions, this dude just cannot catch a break." Coronavirus fears almost certainly depressed turnout, but Trump was also "foiled by a bunch of meddling kids" and K-pop fans, he laughed.
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By the time Trump's helicopter landed back at the White House, "it was clear that all of those empty seats really took a toll," Noah said. "Honestly, it's weird to see Trump display emotion — it's actually uncomfortable," he added. "But I think this experience was the first time Trump actually felt the full weight and severity of the coronavirus pandemic. And what finally got to him wasn't the 122,000 lives lost in America, but instead the 12,800 empty seats in an arena."
Tooning Out the News tried to pep up Trump's "walk of shame" by drawing in cheerful Secret Service agents.
"We should never have to see the president in such a pathetic state — it's embarrassing," Late Night's Seth Meyers said. "Trump is now and always has been a historically unpopular president, he's just been able to mask his unpopularity and soothe his ego with large crowds." He "staked his political fortunes and his ego on this rally," Meyers said, and instead of mounting "a big show of political strength," he had a total "flop."
"You can tell the Trump campaign may be lowering expectations because the next rally is being held inside the birthday room at Dave & Buster's," Jimmy Fallon joked at The Tonight Show. He sighed at Trump's long story about drinking water and walking down a ramp, was less amused at Trump's testing confesssion: "If Trump wants fewer people showing up for tests, he should just hold his next rally at a testing site." Watch below. Peter Weber
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