President Donald Trump touted his upcoming reelection campaign launch, claiming it is already ‘setting records.’
‘Big Rally tomorrow night in Orlando, Florida, looks to be setting records,’ Trump tweeted Monday morning. ‘We are building large movie screens outside to take care of everybody. Over 100,000 requests. Our Country is doing great, far beyond what the haters & losers thought possible – and it will only get better!’
Last week, the president claimed 106,000 people requested tickets to Tuesday’s event at Orlando’s Amway Center, a 20,000-seat arena.
His campaign announced the launch, dubbed the ’45 Fest,’ would start 10 hours before the 8:00 p.m. launch and have a carnival-like atmosphere, complete with food trucks, live music and entertainment and jumbo TV screens to accommodate the overflow crowd.
President Donald Trump boasted that more than 100,000 people requested tickets for his reelection launch set for Tuesday night in Orlando, Florida
Trump said his launch, which will be held at Orlando’s 20,000-seat Amway Center, is ‘setting records’
The president also claimed that all polls that show him coming in behind the ‘Motley Crew’ of Democrats are ‘fake’
He also claimed it was too early to focus on the polls. Last year around the same time in the campaign schedule, Trump was 17 percentage points behind Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton
Should 106,000 Trump fans show up, the mass of MAGA humanity would be nearly twice the size of an average day’s attendance at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, a half-hour drive away.
Trump boasted that his reelection efforts are ‘looking really good,’ and claimed the polls that show some of the top-tier Democrats running in the party’s primary are ‘fake.’
‘Only Fake Polls show us behind the Motley Crew,’ Trump tweeted, creating a new nickname for the two dozen Democrats running.
‘We are looking really good, but it is far too early to be focused on that. Much work to do! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ he continued.
Several national and regional polls recently have indicated that some top-tier Democratic candidates could beat Trump in a head-to-head matchup, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Democratic candidates, however, haven’t come close to the crowd-size the president is touting.
Biden’s first campaign stop last week in Iowa drew fewer than 100 people to the town of Ottumwa, but his campaign kickoff event, an outdoor speech in Philadelphia, drew an estimated 6,000 people.
President Donald Trump will launch his 2020 re-election campaign next Tuesday in Orlando Florida alongside first lady Melania Trump (pictured in 2017)
The event is being held at Orlando’s Amway Center, which has a maximum capacity of 20,000 people for sporting events; Trump claims 106,000 people have requested tickets
The campaign tasked a booking agent with finding a band to play outside for Trump fans; ‘The Guzzlers’ from Houston, Texas
California Sen. Kamala Harris’s campaign launch rally in Oakland was seen in person by about 20,000 people. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders held several rallies that size in 2016.
Sanders’ campaign says that at his opening event in Brooklyn, New York this year he spoke to an audience of 13,000.
Trump’s campaign’s hired band is a Houston-based quintet called ‘The Guzzlers.’ A member who gave his name as ‘Dancin’ Dave’ told DailyMail.com that they got the job through a Texas-based booking agent.
‘I don’t really know how we got picked,’ he said in a brief phone interview as he set up for a gig in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
‘We’re just a bunch of old rockers with day jobs. We’re recovering musicians, if you want to know,’ he said.
Trump rallies generally feature long lines to get through Secret Service screening, like this May 20 event at an airfield in Montoursville, Pennsylvania
The group’s website pictures an aging party band whose members go by names like ‘Wildeman’ and ‘Johnny Gator.’
‘We believe playing keeps us young,’ it says. ‘Together, we have more than 200 years of experience.’
Dancin’ Dave wouldn’t comment on whether The Guzzlers are Trump supporters.
He said they are known for charity events that benefit the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, the institution that Eric Trump has raised millions for with golf tournaments.
‘We’ve been doing that work for quite awhile,’ he said.
The president’s son said in a text message that it was a coincidence and he didn’t recommend them.
President Trump will speak Tuesday alongside first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence.
The campaign says food trucks will be available Tuesday night to feed the MAGA faithful
Where to put them all? The neighborhood around the Amway Center, seen from above, doesn’t lend itself to massive public gatherings
Trump will speak in the arena where the Orlando Magic play; his campaign might fit more than 20,000 people inside since fans will both fill the seats and pack the standing-room floor
‘The President’s historic announcement of his second term presidential run has already generated tens of thousands of ticketing requests and will draw an enormous crowd,’ said Michael Glassner, the campaign’s chief operating officer.
‘We’ll have delicious food, live music, big screens, and a great time for all of our guests,’ he said.
As of Wednesday the president was claiming that his campaign had 74,000 requests for tickets.
His campaign claimed last year that 100,000 people requested tickets for for a Houston rally. While that number was never confirmed, supporters of the president camped outside the arena overnight. The line stretched more than five city blocks.
Trump has been foreshadowing his re-election campaign for more than a year by teasing the possibility of a switch away from the Reagan-era ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan that catapulted him to the White House.
Tuesday in West Des Moines, Iowa, he polled a Republican fundraiser audience to see if they would prefer replacing it with ‘Keep America Great.’
The novel approach generated far more applause, as it did a week earlier at a central Pennsylvania rally.