In a sign of how things are going for his campaign, Donald Trump will hold his North Carolina rally in a 2,400-seat auditorium instead of the 7,200-seat arena next door.
This is where Trump is holding his event:
The deposit will cover a two-day rental of the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, a city-owned building that’s part of the Harrah’s Cherokee Center complex in downtown Asheville. The auditorium is the smaller of the complex’s two venues, with a maximum seating capacity of 2,431, according to the venue website.
The exploreashville.com Arena is next door. It has a capacity of 7,200, and is apparently available according to the schedule on the venue website. There is a record fair being held there on August 25. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will be there on August 30, and Seether and Skillet will be there on September 17.
I understand why Trump may have been worried about not being able to fill the same venue as King Gizzard and the Lizzard Wizard, but the Trump’s campaign’s decision to pick the smaller venue is revealing because it suggests that either they didn’t want to pay for the bigger venue which would have cost the campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars, or they were worried about filling the place.
The not-so-little secret is that many of the people who attend Trump’s big rallies aren’t local. Trump has a large contingent of fans who follow him around the country and go to his events; some of them make their money by selling Trump-themed merchandise.
As Kamala Harris draws crowds in the tens of thousands, Trump plays venues one-fifth the size. The optics don’t look good.
Trump had to pre-pay for the North Carolina rally while JD Vance is in Michigan speaking to virtually empty parking lots.
Things are definitely not going well for the Trump campaign.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
