Fact Check: Trump Claims There's Never Been an Empty Seat at His Rallies

Donald Trump has not let up the attack ahead of next week's South Carolina Republican presidential primary, making dubious claims that "liberals and Marxists" were voting for rival Nikki Haley, among other jibes.

Trump said during a Wednesday night campaign rally in South Carolina that Haley, the state's former governor, was "pushing Democrats to vote" against him.

Ahead of the vote on February 24, Trump also boasted about his ability to pull in crowds, claiming that there has never been an empty seat at any of his rallies.

The Claim

At a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, on February 14, 2024, Trump said: "You know now every rally like this one, turns out they're all rallies, because if we have a thousand people, 10,000 people show up, they're all rallies.

"But they come by the thousands, we never have empty seats, we never have anything empty. We usually have to put screens like this outside so people can see."

The Facts

Most politicians would find it difficult if not impossible to fill the capacity of all their campaign events, but it's a claim that Trump continues to repeat on the Republican presidential primary trail.

While it's undeniable that Trump can bring in strong crowds, his claim that each of his rallies manages to, effectively, sell out is inaccurate.

While there are older examples of this if we look across the years of Trump's political campaigning, there have been plenty of empty seats at his 2023 and 2024 Republican primary rallies.

In January 2024, at a rally at Southern New Hampshire University Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump told crowds that his rally had "set every record", only for footage to reveal that there were empty seats in the venue.

The discrepancy was highlighted on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel played footage of a protester being ejected that also showed vacant rows at the back of the arena.

Attendees at a rally in November 2023, at the Florida Republican Party's Freedom Summit in Kissimmee, also showed Trump failed to fill the venue.

The following week, Trump also bragged about the size of the crowd at a rally in Hialeah, Florida, despite videos circulating on social media that appeared to show empty seats throughout.

"I'm standing in front of tens of thousands of people right now and it's on television. That's a lot harder to do than a debate," Trump said, despite the venue only holding about 5,200 people.

Videos of the rally shared on X, formerly Twitter, showed empty bleacher seats, although some guests can be seen standing behind a section of seats closer to the stage. An account associated with a group supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 GOP presidential primary also claimed that "people are streaming out of Trump's BORING event while he is still speaking."

And in July 2023, video showed dozens of empty seats at the back of a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

So, while Trump can pull a big crowd in regularly, his claim that all of his rallies are always packed to the rafters is untrue.

Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Donald Trump for comment.

The Ruling

False.

Trump's claim that there has never been an empty seat at his rallies is inaccurate.

Footage from campaign events in January 2024, November 2023, and July 2023, show that Trump has not managed to pack out every campaign event.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team