President Donald Trump's campaign expected an overflow audience during Saturday's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, boasting online that they received over a million ticket requests. Instead, only 6,200 attendees showed up, not including staff or media.
One Iowa woman may have played a role in the Trump campaign's inability to fill Tulsa's BOK Center — which has a 19,000-seat capacity.
TikTok users and Korean pop music fans, mostly teens, claimed partial responsibility for the low turnout after starting a viral prank on social media asking people to register online for free tickets to the rally and not show up, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Mary Jo Laupp, 51, of Fort Dodge, was one of them.
On June 11, Laupp posted a TikTok video venting about the rally and its original planned date on Friday, Juneteenth — a holiday celebrating emancipation from slavery in the United States— and the rally's location: Tulsa is home to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 where white residents killed least 300 Black residents in a thriving Black community known as Black Wall Street and burned the neighborhood to the ground.
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"I want you to Google two phrases: Juneteenth and Black Wall Street. You'll find out why people are really upset about (the rally) and why it's a slap in the face to the Black community," Laupp said in the video.
“I recommend that 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 (Donald Trump) standing there alone on the stage."
All attendees needed for free tickets was a phone number, Laupp said. Many who signed up for the rally as a prank finessed their way into using phone numbers that aren't their own by using Google Voice numbers instead.
Before Laupp's June 11 video went viral, she told the Des Moines Register the most views she had on a single TikTok video was around 200, with only about 1,000 followers.
Friday morning, her June 11 video surpassed 200 views and she had at least 3,000 followers. By Saturday evening, her following grew to 10,000 with the video reaching more than 2.1 million views.
Laupp said she can "definitely" account for about 10,000 tickets reserved from what people on social media told her.
In the words of Laupp, it was a crazy 24 hours.
'I was sure they would fill that auditorium'
Laupp's phone was blowing up during the three hours she'd spent at her daughter's house in Fort Dodge on Saturday for her 2-year-old granddaughter's birthday party, but she ignored all notifications.
"I had grandbabies to play with, I wasn't looking on my phone," Laupp said. When she finally checked her phone as she was leaving her daughter's house around 7 p.m., she had notifications from various social media platforms. The first notification she checked was from a friend on Facebook urging her to look at the footage from the Trump rally in Tulsa.
Mary Jo Laupp, 51 of Fort Dodge participated in a viral social media prank that may have been a cause in President Donald Trump's low turnout at his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally on June 20, 2020. (Photo: Mary Jo Laupp/Special to the Register)
"I jumped on the internet and sure enough, I watch and see all these empty seats, and I was like... wow," Laupp said. "It was wild. It's crazy, I was sure they would fill that auditorium."
Some of those notifications were from Trump supporters angry at her. Laupp said she's received threats since her video went viral that she's handed to authorities, and her personal information has been shared online.
"There's been cranky people, and there are going to be cranky people," Laupp said. "It sucks, but people are going to be ugly."
Laupp acknowledged a combination of reasons for the low turn out, such as the announcement hours before the rally that six Trump campaign staffers had tested positive for COVID-19.
Laupp inspired by today's teens
Brad Parscale, Trump's 2020 campaign manager described claims of ticket hacking as "bogus."
“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," Parscale wrote in a statement on Sunday. "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."
Laupp read Parscale's statement before speaking to the Register. When a reporter mentioned it to her, she laughed.
"They're never going to admit that a bunch of teenagers using a social media app had an impact," Laupp said. "The next move is for all of those who will be 18 in November to get registered and vote."
Laupp said she's in awe of Generation Z. As professional support for the performing arts department at Fort Dodge Senior High School, she says she's witnessed teenagers' hardworking ethics and their dedication towards their beliefs.
Supporters fill in the arena floor before the President Donald Trump rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., Saturday, June 20, 2020. (Photo: SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN via USA TODAY Network)
"For me, the biggest take away from all this is that the teens and 20 something's are empowered," she said. "They discovered what can happen when they use social media to be active in causes they are passionate about."
"I feel kind of like this proud aunt. I'm so proud of these 'Gen Z ' kids. I know how amazing they can be," Luapp continued.
Laupp said the next step for her is to step back and let the younger generation do what they do best.
https://www.press-citizen.com/story...fans-register-trump-rally-tickets/3233577001/
One Iowa woman may have played a role in the Trump campaign's inability to fill Tulsa's BOK Center — which has a 19,000-seat capacity.
TikTok users and Korean pop music fans, mostly teens, claimed partial responsibility for the low turnout after starting a viral prank on social media asking people to register online for free tickets to the rally and not show up, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Mary Jo Laupp, 51, of Fort Dodge, was one of them.
On June 11, Laupp posted a TikTok video venting about the rally and its original planned date on Friday, Juneteenth — a holiday celebrating emancipation from slavery in the United States— and the rally's location: Tulsa is home to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 where white residents killed least 300 Black residents in a thriving Black community known as Black Wall Street and burned the neighborhood to the ground.
ADVERTISING
"I want you to Google two phrases: Juneteenth and Black Wall Street. You'll find out why people are really upset about (the rally) and why it's a slap in the face to the Black community," Laupp said in the video.
“I recommend that 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 (Donald Trump) standing there alone on the stage."
All attendees needed for free tickets was a phone number, Laupp said. Many who signed up for the rally as a prank finessed their way into using phone numbers that aren't their own by using Google Voice numbers instead.
Before Laupp's June 11 video went viral, she told the Des Moines Register the most views she had on a single TikTok video was around 200, with only about 1,000 followers.
Friday morning, her June 11 video surpassed 200 views and she had at least 3,000 followers. By Saturday evening, her following grew to 10,000 with the video reaching more than 2.1 million views.
Laupp said she can "definitely" account for about 10,000 tickets reserved from what people on social media told her.
In the words of Laupp, it was a crazy 24 hours.
'I was sure they would fill that auditorium'
Laupp's phone was blowing up during the three hours she'd spent at her daughter's house in Fort Dodge on Saturday for her 2-year-old granddaughter's birthday party, but she ignored all notifications.
"I had grandbabies to play with, I wasn't looking on my phone," Laupp said. When she finally checked her phone as she was leaving her daughter's house around 7 p.m., she had notifications from various social media platforms. The first notification she checked was from a friend on Facebook urging her to look at the footage from the Trump rally in Tulsa.
Mary Jo Laupp, 51 of Fort Dodge participated in a viral social media prank that may have been a cause in President Donald Trump's low turnout at his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally on June 20, 2020. (Photo: Mary Jo Laupp/Special to the Register)
"I jumped on the internet and sure enough, I watch and see all these empty seats, and I was like... wow," Laupp said. "It was wild. It's crazy, I was sure they would fill that auditorium."
Some of those notifications were from Trump supporters angry at her. Laupp said she's received threats since her video went viral that she's handed to authorities, and her personal information has been shared online.
"There's been cranky people, and there are going to be cranky people," Laupp said. "It sucks, but people are going to be ugly."
Laupp acknowledged a combination of reasons for the low turn out, such as the announcement hours before the rally that six Trump campaign staffers had tested positive for COVID-19.
Laupp inspired by today's teens
Brad Parscale, Trump's 2020 campaign manager described claims of ticket hacking as "bogus."
“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," Parscale wrote in a statement on Sunday. "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."
Laupp read Parscale's statement before speaking to the Register. When a reporter mentioned it to her, she laughed.
"They're never going to admit that a bunch of teenagers using a social media app had an impact," Laupp said. "The next move is for all of those who will be 18 in November to get registered and vote."
Laupp said she's in awe of Generation Z. As professional support for the performing arts department at Fort Dodge Senior High School, she says she's witnessed teenagers' hardworking ethics and their dedication towards their beliefs.
Supporters fill in the arena floor before the President Donald Trump rally at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., Saturday, June 20, 2020. (Photo: SARAH PHIPPS, THE OKLAHOMAN via USA TODAY Network)
"For me, the biggest take away from all this is that the teens and 20 something's are empowered," she said. "They discovered what can happen when they use social media to be active in causes they are passionate about."
"I feel kind of like this proud aunt. I'm so proud of these 'Gen Z ' kids. I know how amazing they can be," Luapp continued.
Laupp said the next step for her is to step back and let the younger generation do what they do best.
https://www.press-citizen.com/story...fans-register-trump-rally-tickets/3233577001/
