Farage’s Pointless Transatlantic Trip

Entry to the USA for those from the UK is at present prohibited. But one person was given dispensation to make the trip this weekend, because he’s pals with the President - yes, Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage was, after due consideration, allowed to board a flight to the USA. He Tweeted a photo of Himself giving a thumbs up, looking like Fred Pontin in shades, telling “In the USA, only twenty four hours from Tulsa”.

Nige had made the trip so he could be in attendance at the first post-lockdown campaign rally to be addressed by Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, held in Tulsa, OK. This was billed as being a great rally, the greatest, the very best, attended by very fine people, but not on both sides. Numbers like one million were pitched, despite the auditorium having a maximum capacity of just 19,000. So it would be full, with standing outside.

Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale was in confident mood as he told “The outdoor stage for [Donald Trump]’s Rally in Tulsa being built. This will be the 1st time that POTUS speaks to BOTH crowds in person - inside & outside. If you come to the rally and don’t get into the BOK Center before it’s full, you can still see the President in person!”

And, as Dave Weigel of the WaPo observed, there was Mr Thirsty. “Nigel Farage backstage at the ‘Team Trump on Tour’ part of the rally, a series of panel discussions for the crowd outside”. But then a problem entered. There was no crowd outside. Jamie McKelvie savoured the moment. “Farage flew out for the... the crowd... the crowd outside... the crowd that doesn't exist... this is too beautiful”. So why no crowd?

The New York Times - yes, the paper that Trump loves to hate - had discovered why. “Teenage TikTok users and K-pop fans claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for President Trump's campaign rally as a prank to ruin the event”. There were around 6,200 inside the arena. Almost all the huge top tier, apart from the area behind Trump and therefore in shot for broadcasters, was empty.

It got worse: Asha Rangappa, an analyst for CNN - another media outlet disliked intensely by The Donald - noted one crucial claim made by those reserving tickets and not turning up: “‘Feeding them false data was a bonus. The data they think they have, the data they are collecting from this rally, isn’t accurate.’ I love it”. Duff follow up data, too.

So Trump and his hangers-on were as a result being ridiculed, as Fionna O’Leary observed (see her thread HERE). After Parscale complained that “radical protesters” had “interfered” with attendance, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez - yes, another Trump hate figure - fired back “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok”.

The campaign had apparently been started by Mary Jo Laupp from Fort Dodge, IA, who is not a teen - but young people had picked up the message and run with it. Now, the Trump campaign has the added headache of heading off more of this weapons grade trolling.

And Nigel Farage may yet get to speak to even more empty car parks. Sad, really.

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