Trump wildly inflates size of crowd at Iowa State Fair

Former president Donald Trump inflated attendance numbers of his appearance at the Iowa State Fair, saying he had a record attendance for his campaign stop.

Mr Trump gave a press conference at the fairgrounds in Des Moines that was broadcast by Real America’s Voice.

“It’s a real honour to be here,” he said. “We have a record that was set. The record is the largest crowd they’ve ever had and I can see that because you can’t get any more people here. I’m very honoured by it, tremendous thing.”

Mr Trump attended the state far as he seeks to win the Iowa Caucus, where he came in second place in 2016. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley, former vice president Mike Pence and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, among others, also attended the state fair as they attempt to court voters.

But all of the candidates significantly trail the former president, who won Iowa in the general election both in 2016 and in 2020 as it has moved from being a battleground to a solidly conservative state.

The Des Moines Register reported that the third day of the state fair, on which Mr Trump attended, had 5,000 more people attend than the third day of the 2022 state fair and 118,000 people attended altogether on the third day of the fair. The all-time attendance record for the state record came in 2019 when 1,170,375 attended throughout the entire fair.

Mr Trump has regularly inflated attendance numbers for his events. Most notably the day after his inauguration, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters incorrectly that Mr Trump’s inauguration had “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”

The former president made the appearance as he faces three indictments, two on the federal level and another from New York, as well as a potential indictment from the office of the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia.