Trump's Tulsa Rally Didn't Draw a Big Crowd. But It Cost a Lot.

[bluewater]

New campaign filings show that President Trump’s campaign paid more than $2.2 million for the event, which drew a sparse crowd that disappointed his campaign.

President Trump has held only one campaign rally since the pandemic swept across the country in March. It not only failed to fill the arena in Tulsa, Okla., it was also very expensive.

New campaign filings submitted Monday afternoon showed that Mr. Trump’s campaign paid more than $2.2 million in event, facility and audio visual costs in June — a month where the Tulsa event was his campaign’s only major public-facing event.

Mr. Trump, whose spirits have long been buoyed by his rallies, had pushed a chance to speak before a cheering and packed crowd but the event, held as fears of the coronavirus were increasing, ultimately left much of the 19,000-person arena unfilled. The sparse crowd helped accelerate the demotion of his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, who had said the campaign fielded one million ticket requests.

The new filings show just how much Mr. Trump’s campaign paid to rent the arena itself: $537,705.44 in “facility rental” payments to the BOK Center. But that fee was just the start.

The campaign then paid nearly $1 million in “event staging” fees between June 16 and the end of the month to eight different companies. The most went to Arcus Group, LLC, which received $673,906 in two payments for “event staging,” one a few days before the rally and another a few days after.

The campaign similarly made two payments totaling more than $426,000 to LMG, LLC, for “audio visual services,” right before and after the rally. The payments in the campaign filings do not specifically list that they were for Mr. Trump’s Tulsa rally but he held no other major, political event for the public last month.

The Trump campaign declined to comment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/us/politics/trump-tulsa-rally-cost.html

[soothsayer]

1. They actually paid their bills?

[mr_lebowski]

4. They are probably just f***ing over cities and municipalities ATM ...

Private businesses can say 'screw you we ain't doing it' and they'll need those people to actually work/do stuff. So they are likely paying businesses on the Campaign Trail.

The city of Tulsa likely got the shaft, though.

[lagomorph777]

6. Most of those "audiovisual" and "staging" companies are probably Trump Org. front companies.

So of course Trump paid his bills to himself, using donor funds.

[AJT]

8. That's what I'm thinking.

[leftieNanner]

2. That means it cost them about $350 per person

Who attended.

Not a good buy there, Trumpy!

[torius]

3. Were the vendors

family members, or just cronies? As why else would the campaign pay anyone.

[lagomorph777]

7. Exactly. Most of the cash went from donors, to campaign, to Trump's pocket.

[Newest Reality]

5. Another victim of the sunk cost fallacy ;) I hope he keeps it up because his base shares it.