Topline
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed a crowd that gathered to see Vice President Kamala Harris arrive at a Michigan airport for a campaign rally was “fake,” insisting her campaign used artificial intelligence to mask the fact that “there was nobody there”—a claim refuted by images, videos and accounts of the event.
A photo taken by a Harris campaign staffer shows the crowd at Harris’ Michigan rally.
Key Facts
In a Truth Social post Sunday, Trump said there was “nobody there” when Harris arrived at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport last week and that she “CHEATED at the airport,” sharing an image of supporters greeting her plane that he claimed was AI-generated—repeating a claim that has circulated on social media in recent days.
There is no evidence the image Trump shared was manipulated: The Harris campaign told Forbes the photo was taken by a campaign staffer at the rally and wasn’t changed using artificial intelligence (the campaign also said in a tweet it is an “actual photo”).
Trump’s broader claim that “nobody” was at Harris’ event is also contradicted by photos, videos and reports by independent news outlets: At least one local media outlet and the Associated Press estimated the rally—which was hosted in an airport hangar—was attended by roughly 15,000 people.
Multiple media outlets—including the Detroit Free Press, MLive, the Detroit News, the AP and Getty Images—have shared photos or galleries from the Wednesday rally that depicted a large crowd for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
There is also video footage from multiple angles of Harris and Walz arriving at the rally and disembarking the plane before a cheering crowd that was captured by NBC News and streamed by PBS and C-SPAN.
Forbes has reached out to the Trump campaign and the Wayne County Airport Authority for comment.
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Crucial Quote
Trump implied without evidence Harris has faked other rally crowds, too—and baselessly accused her of election interference. “Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches,” Trump said in the Truth Social post. “She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!”
Key Background
Trump and his team have bragged about the size of his rallies and events for years. After his 2017 inauguration, Trump’s then-press secretary Sean Spicer said he had “the largest audience to witness an inauguration,” which PolitiFact determined was “flat-out wrong.” Trump recently claimed the crowd he spoke to near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, rivaled the crowd the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had for the “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. The New York Times fact-checked Trump’s claim and found it untrue: It wrote King’s speech drew about 250,000 people while Trump’s Jan. 6 speech drew an estimated 53,000 people. Democrats have raised Trump’s fixation with crowds, especially as Harris has reportedly been drawing larger crowds than President Joe Biden did during his campaign. In Arizona on Friday, Walz praised the size of the crowd earlier in the week in Michigan before smiling and saying, “it’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything,” The Washington Post reported.
Tangent
Harris is catching up to Trump in recent polls ahead of what is expected to be a close election in November. A new New York Times/Siena poll from Aug. 5-9 found Harris now leads in three key swing states: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Further Reading
Israel and Hamas. Previously, she has covered a range of topics from Donald Trump’s legal battles to Taylor Swift’s path to becoming a billionaire. She joined Forbes in April 2022 and is based in Colorado. Prior to joining Forbes, Bohannon covered local news and spent time at the Fort Collins Coloradoan and the Arizona Republic. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Creighton University and has an MA in investigative journalism from Arizona State. Follow Bohannon for continued coverage of pop culture, politics and updates on the war in Gaza.
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