PALM BEACH, Fla. – Donald Trump has long boasted about the size of the crowds at his rallies, but on Thursday he used an unexpected comparison to claim he was the biggest draw: Martin Luther King Jr.
“No one has ever spoken to a bigger crowd than me,” Trump said press conference At Mar-a-Lago. “If you look at ours when Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his speech, his great speech, you’re looking at the same real estate, the same everything, the same number of people.”
Trump responded to a question about whether the end of his term could be considered a peaceful transfer of power, even though it was marked by the January 6 uprising.
As in the past, Trump said that the people arrested in the Capitol attack were treated unfairly. He then unreservedly compared the “Stop Stealing” rally protesters held before marching on the Capitol to King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall.
Trump acknowledged that official estimates showed his crowd was smaller than King’s, but said he thought it was “a lot more people.”
“But when you look at the same picture and everything is the same — because it was the fountains, everything from Lincoln to Washington was left behind — and you look at it and you look at my picture. The crowd … we actually had more people,” he said.
The Congressional January 6 Committee Trump’s crowd was 53,000, about one-fifth 250,000 people were counted Taking in King’s famous address from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Thursday’s NAACP posted photos Of both days at X and Trump’s comparison to the crowd, he said: “Not only is it completely wrong, but here’s what’s more important: MLK’s speech was about democracy. Trump’s speech was about tearing it down.”
So are Trump’s advisers and supporters called him Focusing on the record of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, not her race is done openly during the last week. His tendency to go off-message, comparing himself to the civil rights icon, was on full display again during a wide-ranging hour-long news conference Thursday, in which he said Harris was being “disrespectful” to Black and Indian American voters. both of them.
He he was questioned again without grounds Whether or not Harris has always been identified as Black, she has been called “less skilled” and attributed her rise in the polls to her gender. At the same time, Trump acknowledged that having Harris at the top of the ticket could hurt him a bit among black voters, a demographic his campaign has focused heavily on.
“It changes a little bit. I’m getting other voters,” Trump said from the ornate living room of the Mar-a-Lago club. “You may know that I was doing well with the black voters and still am. “I seem to be very good with black men.”
“I may not do well with black women, but I seem to do very well with other segments,” she said.
It was Trump focuses quickly when Harris, whose father is black and mother is Indian, is in the race to replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. This dynamic was highlighted by last week his comments At an event hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists. At an event in Chicago, Trump falsely suggested that Harris started calling himself black only because it was politically expedient. At a rally in Pennsylvania that night, his campaign posted a banner on the arena’s big screen calling Harris the first “Indian American senator.”
When asked why Harris was doing better than Biden in public opinion polls, Trump said she “represents certain groups of people” and that the bump could be partly attributed to “the fact that she’s a woman.”
“Now that people are finding out that he destroyed San Francisco, I see him going way down in the polls. He destroyed the state of California with Governor Gavin Newsom,” Trump said, giving Governor Gavin Newsom a derogatory nickname.
Harris’ campaign responded to the press conference with the headline, “Donald Trump’s very good, very normal press conference.”
“Split Screen: Joy and Freedom vs. “Whatever the Hell,” read the release.
The press conference came during a relatively quiet week for Trump, who has held just one event in Montana.
“What a stupid question,” Trump said, confused when asked about his light work schedule. “This [is] Because I’m going too far.”
Trump said his campaign has been heavily rotating television ads and meeting with the media publicly, though he is holding fewer events in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention this month. Unlike Harris.
“I do a lot of tapes here. We have commercials that I don’t think anyone has ever shot.” “I see most of you in the room where I talk to you on the phone. I’m talking to the radio. I speak to TV stations. Television is coming here.”
“Excuse me, what are we doing now?” Trump added referring to the press conference. “He does not hold any press conference. … He is not smart enough to hold a press conference.”
Trump’s advisers have stressed the importance of comparing his record to that of Harris, whom they regularly cast as outside the mainstream, even criticizing supporters who sometimes deviate from their desired message.
A senior Trump adviser said: “Sometimes our allies don’t do us any favors when it comes to clarifying their differences. So as a campaign, we need to make it clear where each candidate stands on the issues that matter to gullible voters so they have real information, and we need to spend money on all the tools necessary to do that.
When asked if Trump always helped himself by making these agreements clear in his messaging, the adviser digressed:
“I won’t comment on that.”