# How many people at Trump's rally? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964 "2021-01-07T21:12:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/1 "2021-01-07T21:12:14Z")
I haven’t seen any numbers for the size of the crowd at Trump’s speech, before the rioting started. The clips I saw on the news were all filmed by somebody standing at ground level, and only showed a couple hundred people in the immediate vicinity of the cameraman. (I know that there is no good way to accurately count huge crowds, and for the past 10 years or more, the authorities have usually refused to officially provide numbers, because the numbers get used for political agendas, even if they are wrong.) But still…I wanna know! 🙂 So does anybody have any rough numbers, or comparisons with other recent protests? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/2 "2021-01-07T23:33:57Z")
I heard one TV reporter on the scene say there was between 20,000 and 50,000 protesters, but he was just guessing. If there was one good overhead shot of the crowd you could probably come up with a good estimate. How many people actually entered the Capital itself should be easier to determine since I assume there are security cameras at most if not all of the entrances. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/3 "2021-01-09T14:58:28Z")
Decent pix where hard to find. Saw one of the mall that people often fill during inaugurations. Sidewalks were full, but not grass. Maybe 10,000. Most shots were taken from close up and low down. That makes a crowd that’s only 4 or 5 deep look bigger. Never did find any good shots of Trump’s speech. Counting crowds is like counting colonies on Petri dishes. You count a sample, then multiply by area. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/4 "2021-01-09T16:28:58Z")
_Counting crowds is like counting colonies on Petri dishes. You count a sample, then multiply by area._ Apt. How perfectly apt. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/5 "2021-01-09T23:27:19Z")
Reminder. Let’s avoid political commentary in GQ. This thread is **exclusively** about the specific crowd size and methods of estimation. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2021, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/6 "2021-01-09T23:29:36Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Decent pix where hard to find. Saw one of the mall that people often fill during inaugurations. Sidewalks were full, but not grass. Maybe 10,000. Most shots were taken from close up and low down. That makes a crowd that’s only 4 or 5 deep look bigger. Never did find any good shots of Trump’s speech. > > Counting crowds is like counting colonies on Petri dishes. You count a sample, then multiply by area. Aye; that’s pretty much how you do it. I’d say more than 8,000 but fewer than 12,000, based on what I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Conrad\_Shadowdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ea924/32.png) [@Dr.Conrad\_Shadowdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Conrad_Shadowdale)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/7 "2021-01-11T01:00:23Z")
I’ve looked, at some length, for this info but can’t find it anywhere. I find that curious. It’s funny that the first “controversy” of President Trump’s term was his concern with the size of his inaugural crowd vs. President Obama’s inaugural crowd size and the media’s obsession in proving him wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/8 "2021-01-11T03:57:35Z")
Hmm, I just came here to post this because I read a washington post article that said it was 8,000 and I wanted to see if that was accurate. > **[Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sund-riot-national-guard/2021/01/10/fc2ce7d4-5384-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html)** > > Even as rioters violently overran his forces, Steven Sund said in an exclusive interview, the sergeants at arms for the House and Senate took more than an hour to approve his request. > An army of 8,000 pro-Trump demonstrators streamed down Pennsylvania avenue after hearing Trump speak near the White house. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/9 "2021-01-11T04:06:01Z")
Presumably, not all of those at the rally ended up “streaming down Pennsylvania avenue”. Thus, ~10,000 at the rally, ~8,000 heading toward the Capitol, give or take. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/10 "2021-01-11T05:27:20Z")
> [@Dr.Conrad\_Shadowdale](#): > > It’s funny that the first “controversy” of President Trump’s term was his concern with the size of his inaugural crowd vs. President Obama’s inaugural crowd size and the media’s obsession in proving him wrong. I don’t recall seeing your posts before so thank you for posting this. It’s a big help & likely a huge time-saver. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/11 "2021-01-11T06:21:50Z")
The media wasn’t obsessed with proving Trump wrong. Proving him wrong was trivial, it was obviously wrong. The media actually, as they often do, massively failed by “teaching the controversy”, acting like this was a balanced issue with two sides disagreeing. It was only a story because it was the leading edge of the propaganda movement designed to push us into a post-truth reality. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/12 "2021-01-11T20:17:25Z")
I’m amazed that we haven’t seen aerial views shot by a drone, even it was a government one. Was there an official drone seen anywhere? How could they NOT have aerial surveillance? I’m assuming that private drones would have been prohibited. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-at-trumps-rally/929964/13 "2021-01-12T01:16:16Z")
And that it continues.