Barack Obama’s mockery of Donald Trump’s “weird obsession” with crowd sizes is the star of a new Harris-Walz campaign ad aiming to rattle Trump ahead of the presidential debate Tuesday.
The ad, which is set to air on Fox News, features the notorious moment from Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last month in which he made a highly suggestive gesture with his hands while ridiculing Trump’s pathological preoccupation with the amount of people who attend his public events. Attendees at the DNC roared with laughter as Obama moved his hands apart and then closer together again in a motion widely seen as a crude reference to Trump’s manhood.
The ad also includes footage of people at Trump rallies looking bored and yawning, dubbed with the sound of crickets. It contrasts the lackluster events with the raucous scenes of Harris’ supporters cheering and applauding, as Obama says: “America is ready for a new chapter. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.”
As well as being broadcast on Fox News, the spot will also air in media markets including West Palm Beach—home of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort—and Philadelphia, where the Harris-Trump debate will take place Tuesday night. It’s all part of the Democratic campaign’s $370 million spend on television and digital ads between Labor Day and Election Day on Nov. 5.
“Trump spends a lot of time concerned about his crowd sizes, but the American people are far more concerned about which candidate will make their lives better—and it’s not the guy running on the Project 2025 agenda,” Michael Taylor, the Harris-Walz campaign communications director, said in a statement. “Tonight’s debate will present the stark choice Americans will face at the ballot box: between Vice President Harris who is fighting for the people to make our lives better, and the guy who can’t seem to stop obsessing about himself and the size of his crowds.”
Trump’s fixation on crowd sizes and distorting their reality has been a consistent theme of his political career. He spent part of his first full day in office in 2017 attacking the media for disputing his claims that up to 1.5 million people had attended his inauguration. Even last month, Trump wrongly claimed that images showing large crowds at a Harris rally had been cooked up using artificial intelligence.
