Did teens, TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music troll the president of the United States?
For more than a week before Donald Trump含羞草研究社檚 first campaign rally in three months on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, these tech-savvy groups opposing the president mobilized to reserve tickets for an event they had no intention of attending. While it含羞草研究社檚 unlikely they were responsible for the low turnout, their antics may have inflated the campaign含羞草研究社檚 expectations for attendance numbers that led to Saturday含羞草研究社檚 disappointing show.
含羞草研究社淢y 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America含羞草研究社檚 teens,含羞草研究社� veteran Republican campaign strategist Steve Schmidt tweeted on Saturday. The tweet garnered more than 100,000 likes and many responses from people who say they or their kids did the same.
Reached by telephone Sunday, Schmidt called the rally an 含羞草研究社渦nmitigated disaster含羞草研究社� 含羞草研究社� days after Trump campaign chairman Brad Parscale tweeted that more than a million people requested tickets for the rally through Trump含羞草研究社檚 campaign website.
Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for Trump含羞草研究社檚 Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, said the turnout was a sign of weakening voter support. 含羞草研究社淒onald Trump has abdicated leadership and it is no surprise that his supporters have responded by abandoning him,含羞草研究社� he said.
In a statement, the Trump campaign blamed the 含羞草研究社渇ake news media含羞草研究社� for 含羞草研究社渨arning people away from the rally含羞草研究社� over COVID-19 and protests against racial injustice around the country.
含羞草研究社淟eftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don含羞草研究社檛 know what they含羞草研究社檙e talking about or how our rallies work,含羞草研究社� Parscale wrote. 含羞草研究社淩eporters who wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop fans 含羞草研究社� without contacting the campaign for comment 含羞草研究社� behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade.含羞草研究社�
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On midday Sunday, it was possible to sign up to stream a recap of the Tulsa event later in the day through Trump含羞草研究社檚 website. It requested a name, email address and phone number. There was no age verification in the signup process, though the site required a PIN to verify phone numbers.
Inside the 19,000-seat BOK Center in Tulsa, where Trump thundered that 含羞草研究社渢he silent majority is stronger than ever before,含羞草研究社� numerous seats were empty. Tulsa Fire Department spokesperson Andy Little said the city fire marshal含羞草研究社檚 office reported a crowd of just less than 6,200 in the arena.
City officials had expected a crowd of 100,000 people or more in downtown Tulsa, but that never materialized. That said, the rally, which was broadcast on cable, also targeted voters in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.
Social media users who have followed recent events might not be surprised by the way young people (and some older folks) mobilized to troll the president. They did it not just on TikTok but also on Twitter, Instagram and even Facebook. K-Pop fans 含羞草研究社� who have a massive, co-ordinated online community and a cutting sense of humour 含羞草研究社� have become an unexpected ally to American Black Lives Matter protesters.
In recent weeks, they含羞草研究社檝e been repurposing their usual platforms and hashtags from boosting their favourite stars to backing the Black Lives Matter movement. They flooded right-wing hashtags such as 含羞草研究社渨hite lives matter含羞草研究社� and police apps with short video clips and memes of their K-pop stars. Many of the early social media messages urging people to sign up for tickets brought up the fact that the rally had originally been scheduled for Friday, June 19, which is Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Tulsa, the location for the rally, was the scene in 1921 of one of the most severe white-on-Black attacks in American history.
Schmidt said he was not surprised. Today含羞草研究社檚 teens, after all, grew up with phones and have 含羞草研究社渁bsolutely含羞草研究社� mastered them, he said. They are also the first generation to have remote Zoom classes and have a 含羞草研究社渟ubversive sense of humour,含羞草研究社� having come of age in a world of online trolls and memes, Schmidt said. Most of all, he said, 含羞草研究社渢hey are aware of what is happening around them.含羞草研究社�
含羞草研究社淟ike salmon in the river, they participate politically through the methods and means of their lives,含羞草研究社� Schmidt added.
That said, the original idea for the mass ticket troll may have come not from a teen but from an Iowa woman. The politics site Iowa Starting Line found that a TikTok video posted on June 11 by Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old grandmother from Fort Dodge, Iowa, suggesting that people book free tickets to 含羞草研究社渕ake sure there are empty seats.含羞草研究社� Laupp含羞草研究社檚 video, which also tells viewers how to stop receiving texts from the Trump campaign after they provide their phone number (simply text 含羞草研究社淪TOP含羞草研究社�), has had more than 700,000 likes. It was also possible to sign up for the rally using a fake or temporary phone number from Google Voice, for instance.
As Parscale himself pointed out in a June 14 tweet, though, the ticket signups were not simply about getting bodies to the rally. He called it the 含羞草研究社淏iggest data haul and rally signup of all time by 10x含羞草研究社� 含羞草研究社� meaning the hundreds of thousands of emails and phone numbers the campaign now has in its possession to use for microtargeting advertisements and to reach potential voters.
Sure, it含羞草研究社檚 possible that many of the emails are fake and that the ticket holders have no intention of voting for Trump in November. But while it含羞草研究社檚 possible that this 含羞草研究社渂ad data含羞草研究社� might prove useless 含羞草研究社� or even hurt the Trump campaign in some way 含羞草研究社� experts say there is one clear beneficiary in the end, and that is Facebook. That含羞草研究社檚 due to the complex, murky ways in which Trump含羞草研究社檚 political advertising machine is tied up with the social media giant. Facebook wants data on people, and whether that is 含羞草研究社済ood含羞草研究社� or 含羞草研究社渂ad,含羞草研究社� it will be used to train its systems.
含羞草研究社淣o matter who signs up or if they go to a rally, Trump gets data to train retargeting on Facebook. FB含羞草研究社檚 system will use that data in ways that have nothing to do with Trump,含羞草研究社� tweeted Georgia Tech communications professor Ian Bogost. 含羞草研究社淢ight these `fake含羞草研究社� signups mess up the Trump team含羞草研究社檚 targeting data? Maybe it could, to some extent. But the entire system is so vast and incomprehensible, we含羞草研究社檒l never really know.含羞草研究社�
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Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press
Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this story from Seattle.
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