President Donald Trump didn’t fill his rally arena to the more than 19,000-person capacity Saturday night, despite bragging about 1 million RSVP’s to his Tulsa, Oklahoma, return to the campaign trail.
Many of those who asked for tickets may have been trolling the President — in a stunt organized mainly through the social media platform TikTok. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/21/politics/tiktok-trump-tulsa-rally/index.html
A Trump campaign official pushed back on the suggestion such posts played a role in the turnout, telling CNN, “We had legitimate 300k signups of Republicans who voted in the last four elections. Those are not [TikTok] kids. It was fear of violent protests. This is obvious with the lack of families and children at the rally. We normally have thousands of families.”
While the TikTok effort seems to have overwhelmingly involved teens and other young people, Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old grandmother living in Fort Dodge, Iowa, appears to have played a central role in encouraging people to go to Trump’s website, register to attend the event — and not attend.
…One video, with more than a quarter of a million views, called on fans of South Korean pop music in particular to join the trolling campaign. Fans of the music, which is known as K-pop, are a force on social media — they posted over 6 billion tweets last year alone. And they have a history of taking action for social justice causes.
Earlier this month, K-pop fans rallied around the Black Lives Matter movement, drowning out “White Lives Matter” and other anti-Black hashtags.”
Last year the US intelligence community was urged by lawmakers to assess the national security risks of TikTok and other Chinese-owned platforms. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/tech/tiktok-national-security/index.html
Frank Rich: The Trump Campaign’s Gross Political Malpractice (6/24/20) https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/frank-rich-the-trump-campaigns-gross-political-malpractice.html
“Perhaps the most important thing we learned from Trump’s Tulsa fiasco is that there is no Trump campaign. No real political campaign, even for City Council, would let the candidate and his minions repeatedly promise a million attendees at a rally that missed that mark by some 993,800. No real campaign would demolish its unused outdoor stage for that rally’s “overflow” in broad daylight, on camera, as cable news scrounged for images while waiting for the rally to start, rather than wait until after dark to whisk away the humiliating ruins of defeat. No real campaign would let its candidate be seen returning to the White House that night, all alone, his tie undone, his MAGA cap crushed in his hand, a dinner-theater Willy Loman in visible disarray on a walk of shame.
Wasn’t bravura showmanship, especially when appearing on television, supposed to be Trump’s one unassailable gift as a politician? Coming after the ramp embarrassment at West Point — further evidence of the failure of a political advance team to manage the most basic performative elements of election-year stagecraft — Tulsa suggests the wheels are coming off the Trump show.”
(Vanity Fair 6/22/20): “Brad Really S–t the Bed Saturday Night”: After Tulsa Catastrophe, Parscale—And Kushner—Is at the Top of Trump’s Hit List” https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/after-tulsa-parscale-and-kushner-on-trumps-hit-list?utm_brand=vanity-fair&utm_social-type=earned
(RealClear Politics 6/22/20) “Trump Campaign Stands By Parscale Amid Shake-Up Push” https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/22/trump_campaign_stands_by_parscale_amid_shake-up_push.html
“The Trump campaign on Monday tried to stamp out talk of a major campaign team shake-up in the offing that would remove Parscale from the top campaign leadership post. Asked whether President Trump has full confidence in Parscale to continue in the role, Trump 2020 Communications Director Tim Murtaugh lavished praise on his boss.
“Brad has built an amazing team and is doing a great job,” Murtaugh told RealClearPolitics. “He has a strong, 10-year relationship with the president and the Trump family.” Reached online, Miller told RCP that reports that he might replace Parscale are “fake news.”
“White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has engineered a shake-up in President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in the aftermath of a botched rally in Tulsa, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Kushner on Tuesday replaced chief operating officer Michael Glassner with Jeff DeWit, who held the same position in Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the decision was “not a reaction to Tulsa.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/01/jared-kushner-trump-campaign-team-346728
“President Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell Axios.” https://www.axios.com/trump-kushner-second-thoughts-408d5a33-725d-442a-88e4-d6ab6742c139.html
“The family of the late American rock legend Tom Petty has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Trump campaign after it blasted the song “I Won’t Back Down” at the president’s rally in Tulsa, Okla.” https://www.npr.org/2020/06/21/881444533/tom-pettys-family-doesn-t-want-trump-using-his-music-for-a-campaign-of-hate
“In a statement posted to Petty’s Twitter account on Saturday, the family said the use of the song was “in no way authorized.” https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbAIbp-U8AAfw0k?format=jpg
“Politicians and campaigns in the U.S. are typically free to use any music they choose for rallies as long as they pay for the rights. But numerous artists have asked Trump not to use their music, including Neil Young, Adele, Guns N’ Roses, Pharrell, Earth, Wind & Fire, Queen, REM’s Michael Stipe, The Rolling Stones, Rihanna and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.”
President Donald Trump didn’t fill his rally arena to the more than 19,000-person capacity Saturday night, despite bragging about 1 million RSVP’s to his Tulsa, Oklahoma, return to the campaign trail.
Many of those who asked for tickets may have been trolling the President — in a stunt organized mainly through the social media platform TikTok. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/21/politics/tiktok-trump-tulsa-rally/index.html
A Trump campaign official pushed back on the suggestion such posts played a role in the turnout, telling CNN, “We had legitimate 300k signups of Republicans who voted in the last four elections. Those are not [TikTok] kids. It was fear of violent protests. This is obvious with the lack of families and children at the rally. We normally have thousands of families.”
While the TikTok effort seems to have overwhelmingly involved teens and other young people, Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old grandmother living in Fort Dodge, Iowa, appears to have played a central role in encouraging people to go to Trump’s website, register to attend the event — and not attend.
…One video, with more than a quarter of a million views, called on fans of South Korean pop music in particular to join the trolling campaign. Fans of the music, which is known as K-pop, are a force on social media — they posted over 6 billion tweets last year alone. And they have a history of taking action for social justice causes.
Earlier this month, K-pop fans rallied around the Black Lives Matter movement, drowning out “White Lives Matter” and other anti-Black hashtags.”
Last year the US intelligence community was urged by lawmakers to assess the national security risks of TikTok and other Chinese-owned platforms. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/tech/tiktok-national-security/index.html
8AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 22nd
Frank Rich: The Trump Campaign’s Gross Political Malpractice (6/24/20) https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/frank-rich-the-trump-campaigns-gross-political-malpractice.html
“Perhaps the most important thing we learned from Trump’s Tulsa fiasco is that there is no Trump campaign. No real political campaign, even for City Council, would let the candidate and his minions repeatedly promise a million attendees at a rally that missed that mark by some 993,800. No real campaign would demolish its unused outdoor stage for that rally’s “overflow” in broad daylight, on camera, as cable news scrounged for images while waiting for the rally to start, rather than wait until after dark to whisk away the humiliating ruins of defeat. No real campaign would let its candidate be seen returning to the White House that night, all alone, his tie undone, his MAGA cap crushed in his hand, a dinner-theater Willy Loman in visible disarray on a walk of shame.
Wasn’t bravura showmanship, especially when appearing on television, supposed to be Trump’s one unassailable gift as a politician? Coming after the ramp embarrassment at West Point — further evidence of the failure of a political advance team to manage the most basic performative elements of election-year stagecraft — Tulsa suggests the wheels are coming off the Trump show.”
● “Just fewer than 6,200 people attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Tulsa Fire Department said Sunday — a figure Trump’s reelection campaign is disputing as it also seeks to blame “radical” protesters and the media for it’s smaller-than-expected crowd size”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkYgH3AeqUI
● “A “furious” President Donald Trump yelled at aides when he saw thousands of empty seats at his rally on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to multiple reports.” https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-yelled-aides-when-he-saw-empty-tulsa-rally-was-2020-6
● “Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are “pissed” at campaign manager Brad Parscale over his predictions of a much larger crowd than the one that turned out at the Tulsa rally Saturday night, according to a Trump campaign source.” https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/21/politics/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-brad-parscale/index.html
● “Trump’s sparse rally crowd enraged him. His advisers just revealed why.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/22/trumps-sparse-rally-crowd-enraged-him-his-advisers-just-revealed-why/
● “The President’s Shock at the Rows of Empty Seats in Tulsa : Inside the campaign, advisers believe disappointing attendance at the rally shows genuine fear of the coronavirus and the reality of President Trump’s sliding poll numbers. ” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/us/politics/trump-tulsa-rally.html
● “Donald Trump’s Return from Disappointing Tulsa Rally Gets Meme’d as ‘Walk of Shame'” https://people.com/politics/donald-trump-helicopter-walk-after-tulsa-rally-becomes-meme/
Photograph by Patrick Semansky/AP/Shutterstock (click to enlarge)
(Vanity Fair 6/22/20): “Brad Really S–t the Bed Saturday Night”: After Tulsa Catastrophe, Parscale—And Kushner—Is at the Top of Trump’s Hit List” https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/after-tulsa-parscale-and-kushner-on-trumps-hit-list?utm_brand=vanity-fair&utm_social-type=earned
(RealClear Politics 6/22/20) “Trump Campaign Stands By Parscale Amid Shake-Up Push” https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/22/trump_campaign_stands_by_parscale_amid_shake-up_push.html
“The Trump campaign on Monday tried to stamp out talk of a major campaign team shake-up in the offing that would remove Parscale from the top campaign leadership post. Asked whether President Trump has full confidence in Parscale to continue in the role, Trump 2020 Communications Director Tim Murtaugh lavished praise on his boss.
“Brad has built an amazing team and is doing a great job,” Murtaugh told RealClearPolitics. “He has a strong, 10-year relationship with the president and the Trump family.” Reached online, Miller told RCP that reports that he might replace Parscale are “fake news.”
“White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has engineered a shake-up in President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in the aftermath of a botched rally in Tulsa, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Kushner on Tuesday replaced chief operating officer Michael Glassner with Jeff DeWit, who held the same position in Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the decision was “not a reaction to Tulsa.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/01/jared-kushner-trump-campaign-team-346728
“President Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell Axios.” https://www.axios.com/trump-kushner-second-thoughts-408d5a33-725d-442a-88e4-d6ab6742c139.html
“Trump replaces campaign manager Brad Parscale in major shake-up : Parscale, under pressure after disappointing Tulsa rally, demoted to senior adviser as Trump lags in the polls” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/15/donald-trump-brad-parscale-replaced-campaign-shakeup
Parscale will be demoted to senior adviser, and Bill Stepien, the deputy campaign manager, will take over the top position. Trump made the announcement on Facebook on Wednesday evening, with Twitter temporarily unavailable due to a hacking” [ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/15/twitter-elon-musk-joe-biden-hacked-bitcoin ]
Bill Stepien https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Stepien
“The family of the late American rock legend Tom Petty has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Trump campaign after it blasted the song “I Won’t Back Down” at the president’s rally in Tulsa, Okla.” https://www.npr.org/2020/06/21/881444533/tom-pettys-family-doesn-t-want-trump-using-his-music-for-a-campaign-of-hate
“In a statement posted to Petty’s Twitter account on Saturday, the family said the use of the song was “in no way authorized.” https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbAIbp-U8AAfw0k?format=jpg
“Politicians and campaigns in the U.S. are typically free to use any music they choose for rallies as long as they pay for the rights. But numerous artists have asked Trump not to use their music, including Neil Young, Adele, Guns N’ Roses, Pharrell, Earth, Wind & Fire, Queen, REM’s Michael Stipe, The Rolling Stones, Rihanna and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.”
Workers removed thousands of social distancing stickers before Trump’s Tulsa rally, according to video and a person familiar with the set-up https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/workers-removed-thousands-of-social-distancing-stickers-before-trumps-tulsa-rally-according-to-video-and-a-person-familiar-with-the-set-up/2020/06/27/f429c3be-b801-11ea-9b0f-c797548c1154_story.html
Video appears to show Trump campaign removing social-distancing stickers in Tulsa : Washington Post shares clip of volunteers apparently pulling stickers saying ‘do not sit here’ from seats in BOK Center https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/27/trump-campaign-stickers-social-distancing-tulsa-video
The story was originally reported in Billboard magazine, which said thousands of the stickers were removed. Billboard quoted Doug Thornton – a senior executive at the firm that owns the BOK Center – as saying: “They also told us that they didn’t want any signs posted saying we should social distance in the venue.” (see https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/politics/9409901/trump-tulsa-rally-removed-coronavirus-distance-stickers )
Trump’s Tulsa rally was held as coronavirus cases were rising in Oklahoma and sparked widespread condemnation from local health officials, as well as the president’s critics.
8AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 28th