Trump’s allies are furious over reports of an ‘anemic’ turnout at Georgia rally

On Saturday, March 26, former President Donald Trump spoke at a MAGA rally in Commerce, Georgia, where he continued to promote the Big Lie and told the crowd, “I won twice, and I did much better the second time.” In reality, President Joe Biden outperformed Trump in 2020, picking up 306 electoral votes and defeating him by more than 7 million in the popular vote. Regardless, the Georgia crowd ate it up. But according to right-wing pundit Erick Erickson, the size of that crowd wasn’t as large as Trump and his allies are claiming.

Erickson tweeted, “The Trump turnout on a Saturday in Georgia was anemic. That does not bode well for his slate of candidates. Not all the people there were from Georgia or even able to vote.”

Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington, predictably, is describing Erickson’s tweet as “fake news,” claiming, “We had a massive crowd last night in Georgia.”

But Atlantic Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein found the Commerce crowd to be smaller than Trump gatherings of the past. Tweeting photos of the rally, Bluestein wrote, “I've covered more than two dozen Trump rallies around the nation. This is the smallest crowd I've seen at a rally of his in Georgia since he won the 2016 election — significantly smaller than the crowd in Perry in September.”

Similarly, Stephen Fowler, a reporter for Georgia Public Broadcasting, described the Commerce gathering as “the smallest Trump rally I’ve ever covered here.”

During his Georgia speech, Trump was referring to a possible 2024 presidential run when his comments on the 2020 election were followed by, “Now, we just may have to do it again.”