(Supporters wait for the start of a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump at the BOK Center, June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images))
It’s no secret that K-Pop stans have joined the revolution. After having flooded racist hashtags and raising $1 million for Black Lives Matter in a day, K-Pop stans have proved to be powerful allies. Now, the stans are at it again, using their massive internet influence to mess with conservatives once more and ruining a Trump rally in the process.
The rally was criticized from the start for being scheduled on Juneteenth, the commemoration of the day slaves in Texas were notified of their freedom years after the end of the Civil War, and for being held in Tulsa, the site of a 1921 race massacre. The event was later moved to the 20th.
Along with teens on Tiktok, the K-Pop fans reserved an alleged “one million tickets” to the June 20th event online and never planned to show up, leading Trump to believe he had a full house and effectively ruining what was supposed to be his campaign comeback. With this being Trump’s first rally since the start of the pandemic, the terrible turnout — only filling 6,200 of the BOK Center’s 20,000 seats — overshadowed any praise he thought he’d receive. The other outdoor space that was booked for overflow was so empty that both Trump and Pence canceled their planned speeches for that area.
Even Senator AOC took part in the taunting, praising Zoomers for spreading the campaign to book tickets and leave the arena empty. But the worst part of this mess — the trolling had nothing to do with the actual turnout. The ticket website always allows for extra tickets to be claimed, so the truth is no one wanted to be there. The failed rally brings yet another setback to the Trump campaign, following two Supreme Court rulings that was a blow to conservatives, among other losses.
This underwhelming display goes beyond just empty seats, showing that Trump’s base is not riding for him the way he leads us to believe. His team was relying on the “data haul” of rallygoers for voter information. But according to one Twitter user, because most of it was fake, it’s useless.
Now that K-Pop stans are a clear force to be reckoned with, will they strike again? Probably. There are already calls to pull the same stunt for Trump’s June 23rd rally in Phoenix. Trolling for clout is kinda what K-Pop Twitter does best, so if anything, this will fuel more of it.