Trump’s tour is apparently making ‘millions’ in ticket sales – but crowd pictures suggest otherwise

Once again, it appears former US president Donald Trump is having a tough time understanding what constitutes a “big crowd”.

Not content with overexaggerating the turnout for his 2016 inauguration, the controversial Republican promised “big crowds” for his speaking rallies in Sunrise and Orlando, Florida this past weekend.

Joining the politician on the History Tour is none other than Bill O’Reilly, the disgraced former Fox News host who left the network in 2017 following a New York Times investigation which revealed he paid women to settle sexual harassment complaints.

Unsurprisingly, it seems as though the crowds have been anything but ‘bigly’ – and the extortionate ticket prices for the four-day tour might have something to do with it.

Insider reports that while standard tickets are available for $106, VIP packages – which include a pre-show reception and photos with the pair - are on sale for thousands of dollars. With processing fees, they reportedly total more than $8,500.

Two shows in, however, and pictures have already surfaced of the “not boring” event struggling to pull in crowds.

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According to Politico, a box office staff member at the Amway Center in Orlando said “there’s still a lot of tickets open” ahead of Trump and O’Reilly’s performance in the 20,000-capacity venue yesterday.

Meanwhile, an employee at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida said the event “hasn’t been [selling] like crazy” before the pair took to the stage on Saturday.

Of course, when images were shared online of empty seats in the Sunrise venue, Twitter absolutely loved it:

The rest of the tour doesn’t look good either. In Dallas, the American Airlines Center has a large number of seats available, and in Houston, they have a problem (sorry) – 60 to 65 per cent of tickets are estimated to still be on sale there.

In a statement, Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington rubbished claims that ticket sales were faltering and said: “The History Tour has already sold over $5 million of tickets, and the excitement is unlike anything we’ve seen before.”

O’Reilly also contested the reports too, though boasted a much higher figure – which doesn’t confuse things at all.

“We have more than $7 million in the bank. We haven’t spent a nickel on marketing, nothing. All those 7 million for four shows were done on the announcement.

“Marketing will start in about a week. Nobody has sold tickets this fast at this price, and VIPs are sold out at three of the four venues,” the former broadcaster told Politico.

In the same interview, he also threatened to sue the reporter’s “ass off” and said that claims of low ticket sales ahead of the Orlando show were “bulls***”.

Sure sounds like everything’s going swimmingly…