President Trump told supporters that a rally by former President Barack Obama in Detroit, Michigan was “empty” at his own rally in Georgia.
Obama was in Michigan to support Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is in a tight race with Republican Mike Rogers, and his party’s gubernatorial candidate, Jocelyn Benson.
Trump’s comments are the latest in a long line comparing his crowd sizes to those of various rivals, and particularly Obama’s, demonstrating the president’s continued interest in the topic.
Although the venue was relatively small, Obama’s rally in the Cass Technical High School gymnasium was well attended, according to photographs and videos shared on social media.
News week contacted Cass Technical High School by email, as well as Obama’s office via the press request form, for comment outside of normal business hours. The White House press office discussed News week back to Trump’s comments when contacted.
Trump’s comments
At his own rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday, Trump said: “You know, I saw that Barack Hussein Obama was in Michigan and the place was empty. And they were saying ‘oh, it’s a big crowd coming, people are sneaking in’ – they don’t talk about my crowds, they never talk about them.”
Trump has a habit of including Obama’s middle name when mentioning the former president, in what critics see as an attempt to make him seem more Islamic.
Referring to El-Sayed by his middle name, Trump added: “And now he’s making a speech for Muhammad today and a massive crowd, a massive crowd showed up. Where are they? They never talk about my crowd. You know, we talk about the size of the crowd. I remember Bernie Sanders, he used to draw big crowds. He used to get like 900 to 1,000 people. I get them 35, 40,000. They say ‘Bernie Sanders spoke in front of a massive crowd’ and Donald Trump By the way, I was in town too I had 40,000, he would have about 90.”
Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a midterm campaign rally while campaigning alongside Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit, Michigan, October 24, 2026. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/AFP via Getty Images)
What the photographs and videos show
The video shared on
According to Ploofkins, Obama’s rally was attended by both a large crowd and an overflow crowd, and she included a photograph showing what appeared to be a packed auditorium for the latter.
Farrukh, a progressive commentator who writes about American and British politics, also posted a video purportedly taken from the stage during Obama’s speech on Saturday, showing a packed house.
According to Michigan Bridge, a local media outlet, Obama’s rally was attended by “a crowd of more than 4,300 people.”
At the event, Obama described the November midterm elections as a potential “circuit breaker” and as “the last best chance to rein in at least some of the nonsense” of the second Trump administration.
Former President Barack Obama greets supporters during a “Get Out the Vote” rally in support of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson October 24, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Interest in the size of the Trump rally
In January 2017, Trump said the crowd at his first presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. was like “a million and a half people”, with his then-press secretary Sean Spicer saying it was the largest inauguration audience in American history.
However, photographs shared on social media appear to show greater attendance at Obama’s 2009 inauguration. A study by independent FactCheck.org said: “Side-by-side photos of the 2017 inauguration crowds and the 2009 inauguration crowds on the National Mall show a notable difference, with the 2009 crowds filling more of the space, from the perspective of the Washington Monument looking toward the Capitol. »
In 2024, Trump said attendance at his Stop the Steal rally on January 6, 2021, which resulted in his supporters storming Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results, had a larger turnout than Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in 1963. The U.S. Census estimates that this event, which included the famous “I Have a Dream” speech, was attended by approximately 200,000 people.
Trump also accused Kamala Harris’ campaign of using AI to enlarge a photo of his crowd, although an ABC News investigation examining the metadata concluded that this was false.
Michigan Poll
A poll of 1,185 likely Michigan voters conducted Oct. 15-18 placed El-Sayed ahead of Rogers by two points, with 50 percent of the vote to his Republican rival’s 48 percent.
Similarly, an InsiderAdvantage survey of 1,200 likely voters in the state on October 9 and 10 gave El-Sayed a 48 percent to 46 percent lead.
On Wednesday, a polling model produced by Nate Silver, based on recent polls, gave El-Sayed a three percentage point lead in the Michigan Senate battle.
Contact Newsweek editors about this story: Matthew Robinson And Trevor Davies
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