President Trump said Wednesday that the New York Times was completely off by estimating the crowd size at his rally in Nashville, Tenn., the night before was only about 1,000 people.
“The Failing and Corrupt @nytimes estimated the crowd last night at ‘1000 people,’ when in fact it was many times that number – and the arena was rockin’. This is the way they demean and disparage,” Trump posted to Twitter on Wednesday. “They are very dishonest people who don’t ‘get’ me, and never did!”
The Failing and Corrupt @nytimes estimated the crowd last night at “1000 people,” when in fact it was many times that number – and the arena was rockin’. This is the way they demean and disparage. They are very dishonest people who don’t “get” me, and never did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
He appeared to be referring to a Times piece focusing on how Trump, during his rally Tuesday evening, linked the Democrats to transnational gang MS-13. The Tuesday article mentioned how he spoke to an audience of “about 1,000.”
Following Trump’s tweet, the Times issued a correction to their article to say their 1,000-attendees estimate was “incorrect” and was far lower than the fire marshal office’s estimation of 5,500 people.
“An earlier version of this article cited an incorrect figure for the number of people attending President Trump’s rally. While no exact figure is available, the fire marshal’s office estimated that approximately 5,500 people attended the rally, not about 1,000 people,” the correction in the Times reads.
Trump has in the past blasted the “fake news media” for misrepresenting how many people attended his inauguration in January 2017, and even said they intentionally lied. However, his claims about the inauguration crowd size have been widely discredited.
