'China, Teens, K-pop' Keywords That Failed to Rally the Crowd and Angered Trump

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] Donald Trump, the President of the United States, resumed his presidential campaign rallies after about three months but reportedly became angry due to empty seats, according to The New York Times (NYT). NYT analyzed that behind the empty seats were keywords such as teenagers, K-pop, and China.

On the 21st (local time), NYT cited two sources and reported, "President Trump was furious about the cancellation of the outdoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, held on the 20th, and the low attendance at the indoor rally venue."

On the 20th (local time), behind President Donald Trump delivering a speech, the empty second-floor seats are visible. [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

President Trump wanted to showcase his popularity through a large-scale rally for the first time in about 110 days since March 2, but he encountered an unexpected situation.

Unlike his past rallies that were packed with crowds, most of the seats in the second floor of this rally venue were empty. It was not due to social distancing measures.

The BOK Center, where the rally was held, has a capacity of 19,000, but only about two-thirds of the seats were filled. Earlier, the Trump campaign boasted that over one million people had applied to attend the rally that day, but they failed to fill even the indoor venue with fewer than 20,000 seats. The outdoor rally planned at the BOK Center was also canceled due to lack of audience.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

The Washington Post (WP) pointed out, "Compared to the expectations of the Trump campaign, the scale of the rally that day was humiliating."

NYT analyzed that President Trump's 'humiliation' was due to a 'no-show' protest jointly organized by teenage users of the Chinese app TikTok and K-pop fans.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Brad Parscale, the head of the Trump re-election campaign, claimed that the low attendance at the Tulsa rally was because protesters blocked supporters from entering at the entrance, but most American media unanimously reported that there were no significant protests outside the rally venue that day.

Rather, NYT reported that American teenage K-pop fans using TikTok reserved hundreds of thousands of tickets but did not show up at the venue.

When the Trump campaign posted a notice on Twitter on the 11th, instructing people to reserve free tickets for the Tulsa rally via mobile phones, K-pop fans spread this information widely and encouraged applications, and similar videos circulated extensively on TikTok. TikTok is a video app that the U.S. government has considered or implemented regulations against because it is Chinese-made.

Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) replied on Twitter to Parscale, who claimed that "radical protesters" disrupted attendance, saying, "Actually, you were hit by teenagers using TikTok."

NYT evaluated that recently, K-pop fandoms have been increasingly involved in American politics.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.