Trump and his team claimed there were 25,000 people at his Bronx rally | Fact check
The claim: Trump said 35,000 people attended his May 23 rally in the Bronx
A May 24 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) from the liberal group Occupy Democrats includes an image of a crowd surrounding a stage at a rally former President Donald Trump held in the Bronx, New York, on May 23.
“Trump and his supporters say that there were 35,000 Trumpers at Trump’s Bronx rally yesterday,” reads the caption on the post. “How many do YOU see?”
The post received more than 1,000 shares in less than a week.
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Our rating: False
Trump reposted several statements on Truth Social claiming 25,000 people attended the rally. Both his press secretary and the GOP repeated the estimate. There are no credible reports that Trump claimed a crowd of 35,000.
Rally had a permit for 3,500 people
There are no Truth Social posts or news reports indicating Trump placed the crowd size for the rally at 35,000 people.
Trump did, however, repost articles and a Fox News clip proclaiming there were 25,000 people at the event.
Both the national Republican Party and Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated the figure in separate posts on X, formerly Twitter.
Some outlets were skeptical of the 25,000 figure. Reporters on the scene were generally vague, estimating the size of the crowd as being "in the thousands," "several thousand people" and "at least a thousand." A New York Police Department spokesperson declined to provide a crowd estimate when reached by USA TODAY.
The rally had a permit for 3,500 people, The New York Times reported before the event.
Fact check: Doctored image of Trump rally crowd is from satire account, not Trump
USA TODAY has debunked an array of Occupy Democrats’ claims involving Trump, including false assertions that the former president said he’d force government monitoring on “every pregnant woman” if elected in 2024, that he increased the debt “far more than any president in history” and that 52 of 53 Republican senators voted to let Trump block a Ukraine arms sale in 2020.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources:
Donald Trump, May 25, Truth Social post
Donald Trump, May 24, Truth Social post
Donald Trump, May 24, Truth Social post
GOP, May 24, X post
Karoline Leavitt, May 23, X post
The New York Times, May 22, A Trump Rally in the Bronx? Some Residents Ask Why.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim Trump said NYC rally had 35,000 people | Fact check
