President Trump's campaign staff say it was because protesters were blocking the entrance to the arena that Tulsa campaign rally numbers were low. Reporters at the venue claim there just weren't that many people there. Korean pop music fans and TikTok teens say it was through their social media efforts that turnout tanked. And behind it all is a grandmother from Iowa.
Mary Jo Laupp, 51, is a grandmother from Fort Dodge, Iowa. She told CNN she was inspired to post a video on TikTok after learning that Trump was planning on holding his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Juneteenth (the President eventually changed the date to the following day).
But it was Laupp's video that appears to have launched a movement, setting in motion the support of hundreds of thousands of K-pop fans sharing her video, and TikTok teens creating a tsunami.
"All of those of us that want to see this 19,000 seat auditorium barely filled or completely empty go reserve tickets now and leave him standing alone there on the stage," Laupp told her then-1,000 or so followers on TikTok.
According to the New York Times, TikTok users and K-pop fans registered for tickets for the rally as a prank.
The Trump campaign team @TeamTrump posted a tweet asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones on June 11, K-pop fan accounts began sharing the information with followers, encouraging them to register for the rally — and then not show.
“It spread mostly through Alt TikTok — we kept it on the quiet side where people do pranks and a lot of activism,” YouTuber Elijah Daniel, 26, told The Times. “K-pop Twitter and Alt TikTok have a good alliance where they spread information amongst each other very quickly. They all know the algorithms and how they can boost videos to get where they want.”
Saturday morning, before the rally even started, it was reported that six campaign staffers had tested positive for coronavirus, the Trump campaign said.
The campaign said staffers who tested positive would not be at the rally, according to NBC, who first reported the story.
Last week, the Trump camp confirmed that no masks or social distancing would not be required for attendance to the rally.
“Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don’t know what they’re talking about or how our rallies work. Reporters who wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop fans - without contacting the campaign for comment - behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade. Registering for a rally means you’ve RSVPed with a cell phone number and we constantly weed out bogus numbers, as we did with tens of thousands at the Tulsa rally, in calculating our possible attendee pool. These phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking. What makes this lame attempt at hacking our events even more foolish is the fact that every rally is general admission - entry is on a first-come-first-served basis and prior registration is not required. The fact is that a week’s worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protestors, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally. MSNBC was among outlets reporting that protesters even blocked entrances to the rally at times. For the media to now celebrate the fear that they helped create is disgusting, but typical. And it makes us wonder why we bother credentialing media for events when they don’t do their full jobs as professionals.”
- Brad Parscale, Trump 2020 campaign manager