Former President Trump was irate when TikTokers pulled a prank on him that left thousands of empty seats at his rally in Oklahoma, calling the event the 'biggest f***ing mistake', according to a new book.
'I shouldn't have ever done that f***ing, f***ing rally,' Trump said at an Oval Office meeting in July 2020, after the rally, according to 'Peril,' a tell-all from The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
The book also claims Trump called Brad Parscale a 'f***ing moron.' One month later he fired the campaign manager. The Oklahoma excerpt was first reported by Business Insider.
The June 8, 2020 rally was supposed to be the former president's post-Covid comeback to the campaign trail, but Trump was left speaking to many empty seats after TikTokers and K-pop fans claimed to have reserved hundreds of tickets with no intention of showing up.
'Landslide' by Michael Wolff previously reported a similar Oval Office tantrum from Trump following the rally, which Parcale denied.
'How can you be so stupid? Answer me!' Trump told Parscale, according to Wolff's book.
'The excerpts from Wolfe’s Trump book are complete bulls***. No one yelled at me about Tulsa. My company has helped crowd build for Trump rallies for 6 years. We have helped build crowds for 600+ rallies, including the last two rallies,' Parscale wrote on Twitter.
'I shouldn't have ever done that f***ing, f***ing rally,' Trump said at an Oval Office meeting in July 2020, after the rally, according to 'Peril'
The June 8, 2020 rally was supposed to be the former president's post-Covid comeback to the campaign trail, but was filled empty seats
The Trump campaign blamed the 'fake news media' for 'warning people away from the rally' over COVID-19
In the hours before the event, crowds seemed significantly lighter than expected at the 19,000 seat BOK Center, and campaign officials scrapped plans for Trump to first address an overflow space. Only 6,200 people attended, according to Tulsa officials.
Trump's campaign later privately admitted that as many as 300,000 of the people who signed up for event were online tricksters. Anyone from anywhere could request a ticket through the campaign's website.
Parscale had set high expectations, tweeting in the week leading up: 'Over 1M ticket requests for the @realDonaldTrump #MAGA Rally in Tulsa on Saturday.'
The Trump campaign blamed the 'fake news media' for 'warning people away from the rally' over COVID-19 and protests against racial injustice around the country.
Ahead of the rally, Tulsa health officials warned there could be a spike in COVID cases from it - several Trump campaign staff members had to quarantine after it due to possible exposure.
Also, the original date of the rally was changed after organizers planned it for same day as the Tulsa race massacre, the 1921 event when mobs of white Tulsans attacked a prosperous black neighborhood, destroying businesses.
Parscale, after the rally, tweeted: 'Radical protestors, fueled by a week of apocalyptic media coverage, interfered with @realDonaldTrump supporters at the rally.'
'They even blocked access to the metal detectors, preventing people from entering. Thanks to the 1,000s who made it anyway!'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., praised the Zoomers and K-pop allies involved in reserving tickets.
'Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID Shout out to Zoomers. Y'all make me so proud,' she replied to Parscale.
She added: 'KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too.'
Zoomer is a nickname for a member of Generation Z.
Political strategist Steve Schmidt, an outspoken critic of Trump, tweeted after the really: 'My 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America's teens.
'@realDonaldTrump you have been failed by your team. You have been deserted by your faithful. No one likes to root for the losing team.'
He then added: 'This is what happened tonight. I'm dead serious when I say this. The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump. All across America teens ordered tickets to this event. The fools on the campaign bragged about a million tickets. lol.'
Dozens of other parents shared similar stories from their own teens on Twitter.
Roberto Quinlan tweeted on Saturday night: 'So my teen daughter, who has Snapchat and TikTok accounts, walked in and said to me "So did it work? Did the teens get all the tickets to the Trump rally?" She's known about this ALL WEEK and I just learned this an hour ago...'
Political scientist Alyssa R. Williams wrote: 'My 17 yr old daughter & friends did the same. I thought she was kidding me on how many teens were on board. Amazing!'
Teresa Moore replied: 'It wasn't just teenagers. I'm 60 and I've got 300 tickets. And I'm an Oklahoma Democrat.'
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