During a rally in Great Falls, Montana, where President Trump derided the #MeToo movement and attacked individual Democratic lawmakers, the president once again bragged about the size of his supporter turnout. An estimated 6,500 people attended the event at the Four Seasons Arena on Thursday night, with even more waiting outside.
Admiring his crowd, Trump compared the turnout to another well-known public figure: Elton John.
“I’ve broken more Elton John [attendance] records, and I don’t have a musical instrument,” Trump said according to Yahoo News. “I don’t have a guitar, or an organ. … This is my only musical instrument – the mouth – and hopefully the brain is attached to the mouth. The brain is so much more important.”
Since his first day holding elected office, Trump has made a point of scuffling with reporters over his crowd size. However, a quick comparison of Trump’s actual figures compared to Elton John’s tells quite a different story.
Here are some of Trump’s largest reported turnouts during the 2016 general election.
• November 3, 2016: More than 15,000 people attended Trump’s rally in Selma, North Carolina, according to the Washington Post.
• October 27, 2016: Around 15,000 people attended Trump’s rally in Geneva, Ohio, according to the Post.
• November 7, 2016: Nearly 12,000 people attended a Trump rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, according to local news station WMUR. (These figures are questionable, though, as many photos of the event show the arena’s top sections mostly empty.)
• October 12, 2016: An estimated 12,000 people gathered to see Trump speak in Ocala, Florida, according to the Ocala Star Banner.
• November 4, 2016: An estimated 10,500 people attended a Trump rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, according to the Morning Call, a local paper.
Now, let’s compare that to some of Elton John’s largest venues.
• October 25 and 25, 1975: John played two sold-out shows in Dodger Stadium, which has a capacity of 56,000.
• September 13, 1980: John takes the stage at Central Park. Although the exact attendance isn’t known, the closest estimates are 50,000.
• December 4, 2013: John performs at Madison Square Garden, an arena with a capacity of 20,000.
• September 25, 1995: A concert at Hollywood Bowl, capacity 17,500.
• December 31, 2007: John plays at London’s O2 Arena, where attendance is estimated at 17,000.
Even with a die-hard fan base that, according to the Trump himself, wouldn’t vote against him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, he’s quite a ways off from John’s arena-filling consistency. Even if Trump does have aspirations of matching John’s numbers, they may not come anytime soon. John’s recently announced, three-year-long farewell tour has already sold out some of the world’s premier music venues nearly a year in advance.
