Donald Trump has a lot of enemies.
The US President has drawn the ire from virtually every walk of life, including members of his own Republican Party. In the past week, his decision to hold a rally on June 19th in Tulsa, Oklahoma has led to particular backlash.
The date is also known as 'Juneteenth', and signifies the emancipation of those enslaved by the Confederacy. Furthermore, Tulsa was the location of one of the worst incidents of racial violence seen in the States, where in 1921, black residencies and black-owned businesses were burned, leading to 36 deaths.
Trump did reschedule the rally to last night, although the innuendo was clear beforehand.
In order to derail Trump's rally, internet pranksters were ready to stymie the amount of people that could attend the rally. Attendance could be confirmed by applying online, so it was easy to book tickets freely for the event.
A viral video on TikTok, which was published on June 12, issued instructions on how to ensure there were empty seats in Tulsa.
https://www.tiktok.com/@maryjolaupp/video/6837311838640803078
Politicians and political commentators remarked on the Trump campaign's confidence on a bumper crowd attending the rally. Political strategist and avid anti-Trump campaigner Steve Schmidt told a tale about his daughter and her friends hoarding tickets thousands of miles away.
Likewise, Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also laid into Trump's campaign. The New Yorker was earmarked by the President during the rally, with Trump saying that she has "no sense, no credentials... a little charisma, not much."
Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID
Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud. ☺️ https://t.co/jGrp5bSZ9T— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
However, the star of the show was undoubtedly comedian Elijah Daniel. Daniel has repeatedly voiced his opposition to Donald Trump, including being reprimanded for attempting to throw a glittery dildo at the President. The incident led to the comedian being arrested by the secret service and put on a 'no-fly' list.
Daniel was one of the leading voices in the campaign to hoard tickets, and even went onto BBC News to talk about the campaign, as well as shout out K-Pop stars BTS and their new single.
me educating a BBC World News host 😭 pic.twitter.com/tNX1p5pMmM
— elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) June 21, 2020
Daniel's shout wasn't empty, with K-Pop fanbases repeatedly involved in social media campaigns equipped to drown out right-wing messages. Over the past number of weeks, K-Pop fanbases have taken over right-wing hashtags on social media to ensure that harmful ideologies are unable to be spread.
Some Trump supporters have called these tactics "foreign interference" in American politics, which is certainly very ironic.
