Trump at Tulsa: Ivanka, Jared Kushner 'absolutely pi**ed' with campaign manager Brad Parscale for empty seats
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are said to be angry at Donald Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale after the president's much-awaited comeback rally in Tulsa failed to meet expectations and had a lower turnout than predicted.
Trump had previously bragged that he was looking forward to the rally as more than one million people had sent RSVP for the event, writing on Twitter, "Almost One Million people request tickets for the Saturday Night Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma!"
They were numbers that Parscale also touted to his followers on social media, and as the rally approached, all looked good, with one local official stating they were expecting a huge crowd to be in attendance at the BOK Center. It was reported that supporters had seated themselves outside the arena so they could be the first inside, with some even going so far as to sleep to reserve their spots.
However, the eventual turnout was sub-par, with the Tulsa Fire Department reporting that fewer than 6,200 people attended, something that has irked not only Trump but also Kushner and Ivanka, who have placed the blame squarely on Parscale.
"Jared and Ivanka are p***** at Brad over-promising on crowd size," one Trump campaign source told CNN.
While a spokesperson for Kushner later said it was "false" that the couple was upset with Parscale, there are others in Trump's campaign who are said to have lost confidence in the campaign manager because of the debacle.
A campaign source said Trump "has every right to be p*****" over the turnout in Tulsa. "They gave adversaries and media a gift. It was overconfidence," the source said of Parscale and other staffers involved in the planning of the event.
Expecting the arena to be full and for people to be waiting outside, the campaign had planned for an "overflow" area outside where Trump and Vice President Mike Pence would offer brief remarks. Those speeches were canceled.
Trump was "furious" at the "underwhelming" event, with NBC reporting that he was made angrier by the fact that "before he even left DC, aides made public that six members of team in Tulsa tested positive for Covid-19."
Parscale has been on the defensive since the failure of the rally, putting out a statement where he blamed the poor turnout on the media, the coronavirus, the George Floyd protests, and more.
"The fact is that a week’s worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of Covid and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally," he wrote. "For the media to now celebrate the fear that they helped create is disgusting, but typical."
Parscale also addressed reports that the seats were empty because of K-pop fans and Tik-Tokers who purposefully sent an RSVP for the event and then didn't show up.
"Leftists and online trolls are doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don't know what they're talking about or how our rallies work," he wrote. "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."
An adviser for the Trump campaign said Parscale, who was already under pressure after Trump expressed disappointment in his performance over the last several weeks, is now facing a "decline of confidence."