Listen Live
Rickey Smiley Morning Show Featured Video
CLOSE

Teens that may not even be old enough to vote were able to take a huge political stance at this weekend’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

After President Donald Trump bragged about having 1 million people RSVP for the first rally on his trail and even planning for an outside overflow area, the attendees didn’t fill 19,000 seats of the Tulsa’s Bank of Oklahoma Center arena.

Text “RICKEY” to 71007 to join the Rickey Smiley Morning Show mobile club for exclusive news. (Terms and conditions).

The app TikTok is normally used for trendy dance moves and Generation Zers making funny videos but this time, they decided to take a stance.  The TikTok effort encouraged people to register online for the Trump event, register for seats, but not show up. According to CNN, one video that made a huge impact on his effort came from 51-year-old Mary Jo of Iowa who explained to viewers how to register for the event.

“All of those of us that want to see this 19,000 seat auditorium barely filled or completely empty go reserve tickets now and leave him standing alone there on the stage,” Laupp told TikTok viewers.  The video has been viewed over 2 million times.
Along with the spread from the #TikTokGrandma, K-pop stans (fans of Korean hip-hop and pop music) used their social media power to join the trolling campaign. K-pop stans are known to take action for racial injustices.
NBC News states only “approximately 6,200 people attended the rally on Saturday, according to the Tulsa Fire Department.”
Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale wasn’t too impressed with TikToker’s stance.
“Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don’t know what they’re talking about or how our rallies work. Reporters who wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop fans — without contacting the campaign for comment — behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade,” Parscale said.
Social media users have also speculated that some attendees were paid to fill seats or were actors. CNN reported that a Trump campaign official disputed that the social media campaign had anything to do with the turnout.
 “We had legitimate 300k signups of Republicans who voted in the last four elections. Those are not [TikTok] kids. It was fear of violent protests. This is obvious with the lack of families and children at the rally. We normally have thousands of families.”
 
RELATED NEWS:

President Donald Trump Fixes Lips To Say He Made Juneteenth Relevant

LOL: Porsha Williams Does The #FlipTheSwitch Challenge. Here Are Some of Our Favorite TikToks [VIDEO]