How KPop And TikTok Teens Killed Trump's Tulsa Rally

"A million requests for tickets!" boasted Trump's campaign manager. Only 6100 bothered to show up.
How KPop And TikTok Teens Killed Trump's Tulsa Rally
Credit: Getty
By Ed Scarce — June 21, 2020

After only 6100 turned up for Trump's fiasco in the 19,000 seat venue in Tulsa last night, many wondered why. An outdoor overflow stage wasn't even used. Some taking the credit were hundreds of TikTok users and KPop fans.

Source: New York Times

President Trump’s campaign promised huge crowds at his rally in Tulsa, Okla., 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 Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign, posted on Twitter on Monday that the campaign had fielded more than one 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, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, 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 @TeamTrump tweeted asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones on 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 on 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 on 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 the YouTuber Elijah Daniel, 26, who participated in the 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.”

AOC gave a shout out to zoomers and KPop allies.

Steve Schmidt said his teenage daughter and her friends got hundreds of tickets.

Pink laughed at Trump.

UPDATE: And here's a compilation of Trump people bragging about that they've been inundated with ticket requests, over a million in all.

UPDATE II:

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