In a sharp exchange of political jabs, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign taunted former President Donald Trump on Truth Social by sharing videos of the crowd at her recent rally in Michigan.
The posts came in response to Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that photos of the event were “fake.”
On Wednesday, Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee for the upcoming presidential election, appeared alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The event drew an estimated 15,000 attendees, making it a significant show of support in the key swing state.
The Harris campaign took to Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday, sharing videos of the enthusiastic crowd at the rally.
One video was captioned:
“Warning: The content of this video may upset @realDonaldTrump,” while another post read, “In case you forgot @realdonaldtrump: This is what a rally in a swing state looks like.”
In response, Trump took to Truth Social, alleging without evidence that the Harris campaign had manipulated the images of the rally crowd.
He claimed that the photos were digitally altered and that no one had been present at the event:
“She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there,” Trump wrote, calling the alleged actions “ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”
Despite these accusations, fact-checkers, including Snopes, have found no evidence to support Trump’s claims.
An analysis of the photos posted by the Harris campaign showed that the images were likely taken by someone on the campaign and were not artificially generated or edited.
A Harris campaign official responded to Trump’s allegations by emailing Newsweek a photo of the crowd at Wednesday’s rally, confirming:
“I can confirm that this was taken by Harris campaign staff and not modified by AI in any way.”
The exchange is part of a broader trend in the 2024 election, where both campaigns have been keen to highlight and compare the size of their rally crowds.
Trump has repeatedly boasted about the size of his rallies, often accusing the media of downplaying his support while overestimating Harris’ rally sizes.
This recent back-and-forth highlights the intensifying rivalry between Harris and Trump as the election season heats up, with both campaigns using every tool at their disposal to sway public opinion.
