President Donald Trump’s famous fixation on crowd size has found a new subject — his own vice president.
Trump has been telling allies that Vice President JD Vance “has not drawn large numbers to events that he is headlining,” according to people with knowledge of the private conversations. The account surfaced Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, as the two men split the map for the final stretch before the Tuesday, Nov. 3 midterm elections. On Thursday, Oct. 29, Trump rallied in South Carolina for Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., who faces Democrat Annie Andrews, while Vance headed to Texas for Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
The White House sees no daylight between them. “Donald Trump is the hardest working person in the country, followed by JD Vance,” spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said, adding that both men are raising money and working to get candidates elected.
Vance is seen as the favorite for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. Trump has repeatedly declined to endorse him outright.
Only About 300 Showed in Greensboro
The vice president’s fall schedule has run through smaller rooms. On Sept. 21, he spoke at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, N.C., for Michael Whatley, the Republican candidate for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. The hall holds 3,000; a local NPR affiliate reported the crowd at about 300.
Three days earlier, at an RNC midterm event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the vice president drew a modest turnout, with Iowa Republican congressional candidate Chris McGowan warming up the room at the Mid-America Center. For Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, Vance turned up at the LevelUp Training Complex, an indoor sports training facility in Monroe, Mich.; on Oct. 27 he addressed a crowd in Howell, Mich., for the same candidate. There are no official attendance figures to compare with Trump’s.
Empty Chairs Before the Tyler Rally
On Oct. 13, a widely shared post on X showed rows of empty white folding chairs outside a hangar at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport in Tyler, Texas, minutes before Vance’s program began. Trump’s political operation answered through its Trump War Room account on X, dismissing the post as fake news and running its own video of a crowd cheering the vice president’s arrival. The available material does not establish how many people attended. Paxton is in a close race with Democrat James Talarico, who led by 1.8 points in RealClearPolling’s average as of Oct. 27.
Massive Crowds and an Empty Upper Deck
Trump has been making the opposite case in public. At a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday, Oct. 27, he said he holds the events every night and finds the same scene everywhere he goes, with big screens outside and thousands and thousands of people. “It’s massive crowds,” he said.
The North Carolina venue was full that night, though nobody was left waiting outside, and at other stops even modest venues have had empty sections.
He has policed the coverage aggressively. After New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers reported that several areas of an upper deck sat empty at his Oct. 3 rally in Vandalia, Ohio, Trump called for the arrest of journalists, writing on Truth Social that the paper and other outlets should be arrested for dishonesty and a disservice to the country. The arena was maxed out, he posted, and people in the upper sections always migrate down to the main floor.
The Kansas Rally That Got Canceled
Republicans are bracing to lose control of the House and the Senate, with Democrats leading 51.4 percent to 43.2 percent in RealClearPolling’s national average on the generic congressional ballot. Staffers are on edge as unfavorable polls and negative stories push the president into a dark mood, and some GOP candidates have kept their distance from him on the trail.
Now the travel is shrinking. Trump’s midday rally Saturday, Oct. 31, at the regional airport in Salina, Kan., was called off, two White House officials and a Republican source said, and he is aiming instead for more than 20 tele-rallies before Election Day. He is scheduled to be in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Friday, Oct. 30. No decision has been made on a Sunday, Nov. 1, rally in Dubuque, Iowa.
Inside the building, the routine has changed, too. Natalie Harp, Trump’s special assistant, has moved from her usual desk outside the Oval Office into the private dining room, where she prints out news stories and documents for him.
