President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that there were “no empty seats” at the Republican Party’s midterm convention in Texas, even though photos clearly showed a large number of empty seats in the upper section of the 19,000-seat American Airlines Center. During his closing speech, Trump dismissed concerns about attendance, saying, “Everybody said if you have a midterm convention, it's going to be a disaster. No, but look at that, the highest rafter, no empty seats.” He emphasized that every section of the venue was filled, stating, “Every box is loaded up. Every box, every corner.” Trump also criticized the media, accusing them of focusing on the size of his crowds and suggesting that journalists deliberately look for people using the restroom to create images that appear to show sparse attendance at his events. Earlier in the day, Vice President JD Vance spoke to a largely full crowd at the same venue. While Vance’s audience also had empty seats in the upper levels, his speech focused more on the interruption by a protester waving a Mexican flag. Vance responded to the disruption by telling the protester, “If you love Mexico so much, get your a** over there. I'll buy you the plane ticket.” This is not the first time Trump has made exaggerated claims about the size of his crowds. In the summer, he claimed that a speech at the Great American State Fair was attended by 45,000 people, despite photographic evidence suggesting a much smaller crowd. During the 2024 campaign, Trump also claimed that photos of a Kamala Harris-Tim Walz rally were “fake” and artificially generated. Additionally, Trump has falsely claimed that his January 6, 2021, rally was larger than the 1963 March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. These claims are part of a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has made misleading statements about the size of events. For example, during his first term, the administration repeatedly and falsely claimed that Trump’s 2017 inauguration had the largest crowd in history, despite photographic evidence showing that President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration had a visibly larger crowd.