Trump Brags About ‘Sold Out’ GOP Midterm Convention Despite Rows of Empty Seats

Joseph KonigThu, September 10, 2026 at 7:14 PM UTC

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President Donald Trump speaks at the 2026 GOP Midterm Convention in Dallas on Sept. 9, 2026; Empty seats in the arena as people listen to Trump speak.Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty (2) -

President Donald Trump championed his hastily organized Republican midterm convention in Dallas as a “major, sold out hit” and “far bigger, better and more important than anyone thought possible”

Trump also claimed in a Truth Social post on Sept. 10, “The place was packed! There were thousands of people outside who couldn’t get in”

Press photographers and TV cameras at American Airlines Center showed large swaths of empty seats at the 2026 Republican National Convention

President Donald Trump championed his hastily organized Republican midterm convention in Dallas as a “major, sold out hit” and “far bigger, better and more important than anyone thought possible” after the unorthodox gathering’s first night.

As he often has when discussing rally and crowd sizes over the years, Trump also claimed in a Truth Social post on Thursday, Sept. 10, that “the place was packed! There were thousands of people outside who couldn’t get in.”

“I guess people LOVE TRUMP POLITICS!” the president wrote on Thursday morning.

Press photographers and TV cameras at American Airlines Center — home of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and the NHL’s Dallas Stars — showed large swaths of empty seats at the 2026 Republican Midterm Convention.

“The Arena, which was really nice, beat its own attendance records,” Trump wrote.

The center fits between 19,000 and 21,000 people, depending on the event, according to the arena’s website. While some tickets were distributed for free, attendance reportedly cost thousands of dollars, including north of $25,000 for incumbent Republican lawmakers, according to Politico.

Empty seats are seen as people listen to President Donald Trump speak on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center on Sept. 9 in Dallas.Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty

The Republican National Committee, which organized the rare midterm party convention, did not supply attendance data when contacted multiple times by PEOPLE on Thursday.

“President Trump packed an arena and the energy in the room was electric,” RNC spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in an emailed statement. “President Trump took the stage and delivered a contrast between the Republican vision for the country and the liberal Democrat alternative. But the convention was also about the Americans watching from home, the families weighing the choice ahead — this convention is for them.”

Representatives for the American Airlines Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

“You know what’s amazing? I’m looking at this massive crowd. It’s filled all the way upstairs, all the way. There’s a lot of people outside,” Trump said nearly 90 minutes into his speech on Wednesday, Sept. 10. “And watch this, nobody has left. It’s a great tribute to Trump. Nobody — so, think of this. Nobody has left. And yet I’ll read in The New York Times tomorrow that Trump lost his audience.”

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The crowd that remained broke out into chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump,” before the president waved them off and told his supporters, “Okay, I got it.”

“I’ll read tomorrow and some of the media — The New York Times…  it’s a failing newspaper by the way,” the president continued. “They’ll say that [attendees] started leaving. I’ve been speaking for an hour and 20 minutes. Nobody’s left.”

President Donald Trump departs after speaking during the first day of the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas on Sept. 9, 2026.Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty

He then launched into an anecdote about campaigning with South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, earlier this year, and accused Times journalist Shawn McCreesh of lying about the South Carolina event’s crowd size and being “a creep.”

“So just remember, we looked around, the place is packed, nobody left. Let’s keep it that way because I’m almost finished, okay?” Trump told the crowd in Dallas. His speech ultimately wrapped up after an hour and 45 minutes.

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The next morning, Trump also boasted without offering evidence that the convention’s ratings beat the NFL season opener between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots on Wednesday night. Only a handful of TV networks broadcast the event live, and initial ratings were not immediately made available.

Neither the NFL nor ratings trackers like Nielsen have released official ratings for Wednesday’s game, but the 2025 season opener garnered 28 million views.

President Donald Trump departs after speaking during the first day of the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas on Sept. 9, 2026.Credit: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty

The final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention — when Trump gave his keynote address at the height of a heated presidential campaign and just days after an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pa. — peaked at 28.4 million viewers across 14 TV networks.

“It was really something, streaming all over the place, and really big numbers, despite going up against the NFL. The overall numbers beat the NFL,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “I’ll be there again tonight to close out the show. Exciting ‘Stuff!’ ”

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