TikTok users, K-pop fans credited with helping to sabotage Trump rally
AND MANAGING TO KEEP IT SECRET
The prank proved successful, as Forbes reported attendance was just under 6,200.
NOT THE 400LB GUY ON A COMPUTER
IN HIS MOM'S BASEMENT AS TRUMP ONCE SAID
RATHER GEN Z ON THEIR SMARTPHONES
(Reuters) - TikTok users and Korean pop music fans are being partly credited for inflating attendance expectations at a less-than-full arena at President Donald Trump's first political rally in months, held in Tulsa on Saturday.
Social media users on different platforms, including the popular video-sharing app TikTok, have claimed in posts and videos that they registered for free tickets to the rally as a prank, with no intention of going.
Prior to the event, Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale said there had been more than one million ticket requests for the event. However, the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena had many empty seats and Trump and Vice President Mike Pence canceled speeches to an expected "overflow" crowd.
The Trump campaign said that the entry was 'first-come-first-served' and that no one was issued an actual ticket.
"Leftists always fool themselves into thinking they're being clever. Registering for a rally only means you’ve RSVPed with a cell phone number," said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh in a statement to Reuters. "But we thank them for their contact information."
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, responded to a tweet by Parscale blaming the media for discouraging attendees and cited bad behavior by demonstrators outside.
"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," she tweeted on Saturday. "KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too," she added.
"My 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America’s teens," tweeted former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt.
CNN reported on Tuesday that a TikTok video posted by Mary Jo Laupp, a user who uses the hashtag #TikTokGrandma, was helping lead the charge. The video now has more than 700,000 likes.
There were some shouting matches and scuffles outside the event between around 30 Black Lives Matter demonstrators and some Trump supporters waiting to enter. A Reuters reporter saw no sign any Trump supporters were prevented from entering the arena or overflow area.
Trump had brushed aside criticism for his decision to hold the in Tulsa, the site of the country's bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence against Black Americans some 100 years ago.
TikTokers and K-Pop Stans Say They Trolled President Trump's Campaign Rally in Tulsa
They reserved seats for the event and didn't show up.
Jun 21, 2020
President Trump's first campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic had far less of a turnout than expected, and a group of TikTok teens and K-Pop stans may have been responsible for the shrunken crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Last week, POTUS bragged on Twitter that nearly one million people requested tickets for Saturday night's rally, but that the arena could only hold 19,000 fans, which lead many to believe the event would be at capacity. However, it appears hundreds of thousands of those RSVP requests were made by TikTokers and fans of Korean pop music who had no intention of showing up, according to The New York Times.
In the days leading up the event, TikTok users made videos encouraging their followers to reserve seats and not attend in an effort to inflate expectations.
"Guys, Donald Trump is having a rally next week and it's free. All you have to do is give your phone number and you can get two tickets, so I got two tickets. But I totally forgot that I have to pick every individual piece of lint off of my room floor and sort them by size, so I can't make it," one TikToker sarcastically said in a clip prior to the rally.
"Oh, well. I already got the tickets and I accidentally just verified it, too. So that means there's going to be at least two empty spots."
RELATED: George Clooney Donates $500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative on President Trump's Behalf
A thread of some of the TikTokers/Zoomers who reserved tickets to Trump’s rally to shrink the crowd today in Oklahoma ππΌ pic.twitter.com/ITz4NAbeTD
— Jenna Amatulli (@ohheyjenna) June 21, 2020
pic.twitter.com/hgg2JSOuz4
— Jenna Amatulli (@ohheyjenna) June 21, 2020
pic.twitter.com/tdXrp3K2al
— Jenna Amatulli (@ohheyjenna) June 21, 2020
The prank proved successful, as Forbes reported attendance was just under 6,200.
Following the event, Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale blamed the low turnout on "radical protestors" who blocked supporters from entering the arena.
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. ☺️ https://t.co/jGrp5bSZ9T
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez quickly refuted Parscale's claim, and responded: "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."
She added, "Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud." Looks like Trump officially got trolled.
Ocasio-Cortez thanks ‘TikTok teens’ who ‘tricked’ Trump campaign
Published: June 21, 2020 By Shawn Langlois
The upper section of the arena is seen partially empty as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in Tulsa, Oklahoma. GETTY
Kids these days.
Donald Trump’s big campaign rally in Tulsa wasn’t quite as big as promised, with the man leading the president’s re-election efforts explaining away the no-shows.
“Radical protestors, fueled by a week of apocalyptic media coverage, interfered with @realDonaldTrump supporters at the rally,” Brad Parscale explained. “They even blocked access to the metal detectors, preventing people from entering.”
Trump, for his part, took to the stage and backed that assessment, saying the media’s urging of his supporters not to attend on top of the protesters outside kept the crowds away.
“We begin our campaign,” Trump said. “The silent majority is stronger than ever before.”
But New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t buying it, and she shared her appreciation with those she believes duped the Trump administration:
Ocasio-Cortz was referring to the teenage TikTok users and K-pop fans who were reportedly behind the “millions” of ticket requests ahead of the event. After the Trump campaign’s official account posted a tweet asking supporters to register for free tickets earlier this month, the youngsters decided to prank the administration by pushing followers to sign up but not show.
If true, it sure seemed to work:
“It spread mostly through Alt TikTok — we kept it on the quiet side where people do pranks and a lot of activism,” YouTuber Elijah Daniel, 26, told the New York Times. “K-pop Twitter and Alt TikTok have a good alliance where they spread information amongst each other very quickly. They all know the algorithms and how they can boost videos to get where they want.”
Daniel, who took part in the prank, said most of the people deleted the evidence after the first day so that the Trump campaign wouldn’t catch wind.
“These kids are smart and they thought of everything,” he said.
Erin Hoffman was one of those “kids,” apparently.
“Trump has been actively trying to disenfranchise millions of Americans in so many ways, and to me, this was the protest I was able to perform,” she told the Times. “He doesn’t deserve the platform he has been given.” Hoffman also persuaded her parents to reserve two tickets.
With all the buzz over the prank, #TikTokTeens was trending on Twitter TWTR, -1.82% Sunday:
Zoomers Boast They Sabotaged Trump Rally Turnout With Fake Reservations
Mary Papenfuss HuffPost•June 21, 2020
Members of Generation Z are claiming on social media that the “Zoomers” are at least partially responsible for a number of empty seats at President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday night.
As part of a campaign organized on social media, they reserved masses of tickets to the rally that they had no intention of using.
The rally-busting movement involved young TikTok users and K-Pop fans around the nation, according to the prank participants who posted their (unused) ticket confirmations or commented (and celebrated) online after the rally.
@eggzabeth
##greenscreenvideo IT WORKED ✨π€ͺπ§πΌ♀️ ##trump ##trumprally♬ original sound - eggzabeth
@emilysdcp
GO REGISTER! And don’t forget to not show up! Take those seats away! ##trump ##trump2020 ##2020 ##trumprally ##republican ##tulsa JK ##blm ##lgbt ##voteblue♬ original sound - vividdreamergirl
@sawyermcd
Tik tok really did that! A million wasted tickets hahahah ##trumpresign ##fyp ##blm ##joebiden ##trumprally ##tulsa ##okboomer ##bye ##Summer2020 ##xyzbca ##fypp♬ yeeeee - cej2.11
Political strategist Steve Schmidt boasted on Twitter that his daughter and her friends in Park City, Utah, signed up for “hundreds” of free tickets to the rally they had absolutely no intention of attending. “You have been rolled by America’s teens,” Schmidt mocked Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale in a tweet.
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. @ProjectLincoln https://t.co/VM5elZ57Qp
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2020
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. @ProjectLincoln.
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2020
Others responded to Schmidt’s tweets, saying they or their kids had also made fake ticket reservations.
Omg my 13 year old told me about teens getting tickets to keep the stands empty. Man do I love this generation! I am finally getting optimistic about our future.
— BeMerrie (@F2FNetwork) June 20, 2020
My 3 cats each have tickets ππ»
— βπππ πβββπππΌπ π³️π (@aWomanResisting) June 20, 2020
The movement appears to have been launched by Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old teacher from Iowa, who had worked on Pete Buttigieg’s campaign, CNN reported. She explained her idea in a TikTok video that had 700,000 likes by late Saturday.
@maryjolaupp
Did you know you can make sure there are empty seats at Trump’s rally? ##BLM.♬ original sound - maryjolaupp
On Saturday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted at Parscale, saying he got “ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign” with fake reservations. The congresswoman also hailed “K-Pop allies,” saying: “We see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice, too.”
She added a “shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud.”
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. ☺️ https://t.co/jGrp5bSZ9T
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too π
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
Trump’s campaign had heard of the plot, but may have misjudged its reach. Erin Perrine, principle deputy communications director for the Trump campaign, told CNN last week it was no big concern.
“Leftists do this all the time,” she said. “They think if they sign up for tickets that will leave empty seats. Not the case at all. Always way more ticket requests than seats available at a rally. All they are doing is giving us access to their contact information.”
Usually, tickets aren’t required for campaign rallies, the campaign told CNN. But the situation was different for the Tulsa event, because reservations included a legal disclaimer that participants wouldn’t sue Trump or the campaign if they contracted COVID-19 at the rally. And without a reservation, there would be no legal waiver for attendees to sign beforehand.
When videos from the event showed huge swathes of empty blue seats at the BOK Center where Trump spoke, which holds 19,000 people, TikTok users were thrilled.
“What did you guys do?” a stunned Laupp asked in a video Saturday after seeing the empty seats. “Like, seriously? Are you kidding me right now?”
@maryjolaupp
##TikTokGrandma ##SpeakUp THANK YOU!!!!!♬ original sound - maryjolaupp
@jilljillsiwa
Reply to @mopedrespecter gen Z and the Kpop army killed it... let’s keep it up! ##genz ##kpop ##ARMY ##generationz ##trumprally ##tulsa ##aoc ##vote ##voteblue♬ We Did It! - Dora The Explorer
@baby.witch.hours
##duet with @orphan_since2017 Awe I’m totally sooo sad ππ ##trump ##makeamericagreatagain ##jkfucktrump ##dumptrump ##trump2020 ##trumprally ##fyp ##foryoupa♬ DONT DO THIS ALL IT DOES IS HELP TRUMP SORRY - orphan_since2017
@simonechalamet
##greenscreen speaks for itself dunnit ##fyp ##trump ##trumprally ##tulsa♬ original sound - emann_hh
@whitepapercupp
I think I’m gonna be sick on this day π✋✨ google his Tulsa rally and book your tickets! ##maga ##trump2020 ##donaldtrump ##allbirthdaysmatter♬ Macarena - Bass Bumpers Remix Radio Edit - Los Del Rio
TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sunk Trump Rally
Taylor Lorenz, Kellen Browning and Sheera Frenkel,
The New York Times•June 21, 2020
A Trump supporter sits alone in the top sections of seating at the president's Tulsa rally. (Getty Images)
President Donald Trump’s campaign promised huge crowds at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, but it failed to deliver. Hundreds of teenage TikTok users and K-pop fans say they’re at least partially responsible.
Brad Parscale, the chairman of Trump’s reelection campaign, posted on Twitter on Monday that the campaign had fielded more than 1 million ticket requests, but reporters at the event noted the attendance was lower than expected. The campaign also canceled planned events outside the rally for an anticipated overflow crowd that did not materialize.
Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said protesters stopped supporters from entering the rally, held at the BOK Center, which has a 19,000-seat capacity. Reporters present said there were few protests.
TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music groups claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for Trump’s campaign rally as a prank. After the Trump campaign’s official account @TeamTrump posted a tweet asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones June 11, K-pop fan accounts began sharing the information with followers, encouraging them to register for the rally — and then not show.
The trend quickly spread on TikTok, where videos with millions of views instructed viewers to do the same, as CNN reported Tuesday. “Oh no. I signed up for a Trump rally, and I can’t go,” one woman joked, along with a fake cough, in a TikTok posted June 15.
Thousands of other users posted similar tweets and videos to TikTok that racked up millions of views. Representatives for TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“It spread mostly through Alt TikTok — we kept it on the quiet side where people do pranks and a lot of activism,” said YouTuber Elijah Daniel, 26, who participated in the social media campaign. “K-pop, Twitter and Alt TikTok have a good alliance where they spread information amongst each other very quickly. They all know the algorithms and how they can boost videos to get where they want.”
Many users deleted their posts after 24 to 48 hours in order to conceal their plan and keep it from spreading into the mainstream internet. “The majority of people who made them deleted them after the first day because we didn’t want the Trump campaign to catch wind,” Daniel said. “These kids are smart, and they thought of everything.”
Twitter users Saturday night were quick to declare the social media campaign’s victory. “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted in response to Parscale, who had tweeted that “radical protestors” had “interfered” with attendance.
Steve Schmidt, a longtime Republican strategist, added, “The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump.”
Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old from Fort Dodge, Iowa, said she had been watching Black TikTok users express their frustration about Trump hosting his rally on Juneteenth, the holiday on June 19. (The rally was later moved to June 20.) She “vented” her own anger in a late-night TikTok video June 11 — and provided a call to action.
“I recommend all of those of us that want to see this 19,000-seat auditorium barely filled or completely empty go reserve tickets now and leave him standing there alone on the stage,” Laupp said in the video.
When she checked her phone the next morning, Laupp said, the video was starting to go viral. It has more than 700,000 likes, she added, and more than 2 million views.
She said she believed that at least 17,000 tickets were accounted for based on comments she received on her TikTok videos but added that people reaching out to her said tens of thousands more had been reserved.
Laupp said she was “overwhelmed” and “stunned” by the possibility that she and the effort she helped inspire might have contributed to the low rally attendance.
“There are teenagers in this country who participated in this little no-show protest, who believe that they can have an impact in their country in the political system even though they’re not old enough to vote right now,” she said.
The effort to deprive Trump of a large crowd spread from Twitter and TikTok across multiple social media platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat.
Erin Hoffman, an 18-year-old from upstate New York, said she heard from a friend on Instagram about the social media campaign. She then spread it herself via her Snapchat story and said friends who saw her post told her they were reserving tickets.
“Trump has been actively trying to disenfranchise millions of Americans in so many ways, and to me, this was the protest I was able to perform,” said Hoffman, who reserved two tickets herself and persuaded one of her parents to nab two more. “He doesn’t deserve the platform he has been given.”
Laupp said that many of the people who shared her video added commentary encouraging people to procure the tickets with fake names and phone numbers. In the comment section under her own video, TikTok users exchanged advice on how to acquire a Google Voice number or another internet-connected phone line.
“We all know the Trump campaign feeds on data; they are constantly mining these rallies for data,” said Laupp, who worked on several rallies for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for president. “Feeding them false data was a bonus. The data they think they have, the data they are collecting from this rally, isn’t accurate.”
She added that several people who took part in her campaign complained that once they signed up for the rally with their real phone numbers, they couldn’t get the Trump campaign to stop texting them and sending them messages.
Mary Garcia, a 19-year-old student from California, said that she used a Google Voice number to sign up for the rally but that two of her friends who also signed up used their real numbers and had been inundated with texts from the Trump campaign.
Garcia said she decided to sign up on a whim after seeing Laupp’s video, but after she saw the Trump campaign boasting about its record-setting ticket numbers she regretted what she had done.
“I feel like it doesn’t even matter if the rally is full or not,” Garcia said. “They are going to boast about a million tickets being registered, and then they’ll just lie or whatever about how big the audience was.”
K-pop stans have been getting increasingly involved in American politics in recent months. After the Trump campaign solicited messages for the president’s birthday June 8, K-pop stans submitted a stream of prank messages. And earlier in June, when the Dallas Police Department asked citizens to submit videos of suspicious or illegal activity through a dedicated app, K-pop Twitter claimed credit for crashing the app by uploading thousands of “fancam” videos.
They also reclaimed the #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag in May by spamming it with endless K-pop videos in hopes to make it harder for white supremacists and sympathizers to find one another and communicate their messaging.
Whether or not the prank to call in false tickets was the reason for the empty upper rafters at Trump’s rally, teenagers online celebrated. On Twitter, several accounts tweeted, “best senior prank ever.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2020 The New York Times Company
Did you know you can make sure there are empty seats at Trump’s rally? ##BLM.♬ original sound - maryjolaupp
On Saturday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted at Parscale, saying he got “ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign” with fake reservations. The congresswoman also hailed “K-Pop allies,” saying: “We see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice, too.”
She added a “shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud.”
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. ☺️ https://t.co/jGrp5bSZ9T
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too π
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
Trump’s campaign had heard of the plot, but may have misjudged its reach. Erin Perrine, principle deputy communications director for the Trump campaign, told CNN last week it was no big concern.
“Leftists do this all the time,” she said. “They think if they sign up for tickets that will leave empty seats. Not the case at all. Always way more ticket requests than seats available at a rally. All they are doing is giving us access to their contact information.”
Usually, tickets aren’t required for campaign rallies, the campaign told CNN. But the situation was different for the Tulsa event, because reservations included a legal disclaimer that participants wouldn’t sue Trump or the campaign if they contracted COVID-19 at the rally. And without a reservation, there would be no legal waiver for attendees to sign beforehand.
When videos from the event showed huge swathes of empty blue seats at the BOK Center where Trump spoke, which holds 19,000 people, TikTok users were thrilled.
“What did you guys do?” a stunned Laupp asked in a video Saturday after seeing the empty seats. “Like, seriously? Are you kidding me right now?”
@maryjolaupp
##TikTokGrandma ##SpeakUp THANK YOU!!!!!♬ original sound - maryjolaupp
@jilljillsiwa
Reply to @mopedrespecter gen Z and the Kpop army killed it... let’s keep it up! ##genz ##kpop ##ARMY ##generationz ##trumprally ##tulsa ##aoc ##vote ##voteblue♬ We Did It! - Dora The Explorer
@baby.witch.hours
##duet with @orphan_since2017 Awe I’m totally sooo sad ππ ##trump ##makeamericagreatagain ##jkfucktrump ##dumptrump ##trump2020 ##trumprally ##fyp ##foryoupa♬ DONT DO THIS ALL IT DOES IS HELP TRUMP SORRY - orphan_since2017
@simonechalamet
##greenscreen speaks for itself dunnit ##fyp ##trump ##trumprally ##tulsa♬ original sound - emann_hh
@whitepapercupp
I think I’m gonna be sick on this day π✋✨ google his Tulsa rally and book your tickets! ##maga ##trump2020 ##donaldtrump ##allbirthdaysmatter♬ Macarena - Bass Bumpers Remix Radio Edit - Los Del Rio
TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sunk Trump Rally
Taylor Lorenz, Kellen Browning and Sheera Frenkel,
The New York Times•June 21, 2020
A Trump supporter sits alone in the top sections of seating at the president's Tulsa rally. (Getty Images)
President Donald Trump’s campaign promised huge crowds at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, but it failed to deliver. Hundreds of teenage TikTok users and K-pop fans say they’re at least partially responsible.
Brad Parscale, the chairman of Trump’s reelection campaign, posted on Twitter on Monday that the campaign had fielded more than 1 million ticket requests, but reporters at the event noted the attendance was lower than expected. The campaign also canceled planned events outside the rally for an anticipated overflow crowd that did not materialize.
Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said protesters stopped supporters from entering the rally, held at the BOK Center, which has a 19,000-seat capacity. Reporters present said there were few protests.
TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music groups claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for Trump’s campaign rally as a prank. After the Trump campaign’s official account @TeamTrump posted a tweet asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones June 11, K-pop fan accounts began sharing the information with followers, encouraging them to register for the rally — and then not show.
The trend quickly spread on TikTok, where videos with millions of views instructed viewers to do the same, as CNN reported Tuesday. “Oh no. I signed up for a Trump rally, and I can’t go,” one woman joked, along with a fake cough, in a TikTok posted June 15.
Thousands of other users posted similar tweets and videos to TikTok that racked up millions of views. Representatives for TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“It spread mostly through Alt TikTok — we kept it on the quiet side where people do pranks and a lot of activism,” said YouTuber Elijah Daniel, 26, who participated in the social media campaign. “K-pop, Twitter and Alt TikTok have a good alliance where they spread information amongst each other very quickly. They all know the algorithms and how they can boost videos to get where they want.”
Many users deleted their posts after 24 to 48 hours in order to conceal their plan and keep it from spreading into the mainstream internet. “The majority of people who made them deleted them after the first day because we didn’t want the Trump campaign to catch wind,” Daniel said. “These kids are smart, and they thought of everything.”
Twitter users Saturday night were quick to declare the social media campaign’s victory. “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted in response to Parscale, who had tweeted that “radical protestors” had “interfered” with attendance.
Steve Schmidt, a longtime Republican strategist, added, “The teens of America have struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump.”
Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old from Fort Dodge, Iowa, said she had been watching Black TikTok users express their frustration about Trump hosting his rally on Juneteenth, the holiday on June 19. (The rally was later moved to June 20.) She “vented” her own anger in a late-night TikTok video June 11 — and provided a call to action.
“I recommend all of those of us that want to see this 19,000-seat auditorium barely filled or completely empty go reserve tickets now and leave him standing there alone on the stage,” Laupp said in the video.
When she checked her phone the next morning, Laupp said, the video was starting to go viral. It has more than 700,000 likes, she added, and more than 2 million views.
She said she believed that at least 17,000 tickets were accounted for based on comments she received on her TikTok videos but added that people reaching out to her said tens of thousands more had been reserved.
Laupp said she was “overwhelmed” and “stunned” by the possibility that she and the effort she helped inspire might have contributed to the low rally attendance.
“There are teenagers in this country who participated in this little no-show protest, who believe that they can have an impact in their country in the political system even though they’re not old enough to vote right now,” she said.
The effort to deprive Trump of a large crowd spread from Twitter and TikTok across multiple social media platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat.
Erin Hoffman, an 18-year-old from upstate New York, said she heard from a friend on Instagram about the social media campaign. She then spread it herself via her Snapchat story and said friends who saw her post told her they were reserving tickets.
“Trump has been actively trying to disenfranchise millions of Americans in so many ways, and to me, this was the protest I was able to perform,” said Hoffman, who reserved two tickets herself and persuaded one of her parents to nab two more. “He doesn’t deserve the platform he has been given.”
Laupp said that many of the people who shared her video added commentary encouraging people to procure the tickets with fake names and phone numbers. In the comment section under her own video, TikTok users exchanged advice on how to acquire a Google Voice number or another internet-connected phone line.
“We all know the Trump campaign feeds on data; they are constantly mining these rallies for data,” said Laupp, who worked on several rallies for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for president. “Feeding them false data was a bonus. The data they think they have, the data they are collecting from this rally, isn’t accurate.”
She added that several people who took part in her campaign complained that once they signed up for the rally with their real phone numbers, they couldn’t get the Trump campaign to stop texting them and sending them messages.
Mary Garcia, a 19-year-old student from California, said that she used a Google Voice number to sign up for the rally but that two of her friends who also signed up used their real numbers and had been inundated with texts from the Trump campaign.
Garcia said she decided to sign up on a whim after seeing Laupp’s video, but after she saw the Trump campaign boasting about its record-setting ticket numbers she regretted what she had done.
“I feel like it doesn’t even matter if the rally is full or not,” Garcia said. “They are going to boast about a million tickets being registered, and then they’ll just lie or whatever about how big the audience was.”
K-pop stans have been getting increasingly involved in American politics in recent months. After the Trump campaign solicited messages for the president’s birthday June 8, K-pop stans submitted a stream of prank messages. And earlier in June, when the Dallas Police Department asked citizens to submit videos of suspicious or illegal activity through a dedicated app, K-pop Twitter claimed credit for crashing the app by uploading thousands of “fancam” videos.
They also reclaimed the #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag in May by spamming it with endless K-pop videos in hopes to make it harder for white supremacists and sympathizers to find one another and communicate their messaging.
Whether or not the prank to call in false tickets was the reason for the empty upper rafters at Trump’s rally, teenagers online celebrated. On Twitter, several accounts tweeted, “best senior prank ever.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2020 The New York Times Company
Ryan BrooksBuzzFeed News Reporter
Nidhi PrakashBuzzFeed News Reporter
