Donald Trump's Claims About Iowa State Fair Crowd Size Debunked

After taking the spotlight at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday, Donald Trump's team boasted about the former president gathering a record crowd compared to all other presidential candidates at the event—but the actual numbers don't seem to back them up.

The 77-year-old Republican turned heads at the event with a loud arrival in his distinctive red and blue jet, nicknamed "Trump Force One," overshadowing his number one rival Ron DeSantis' attempts to relaunch his faltering presidential campaign. Surrounded by cheering voters, Trump declared that he had gathered the largest crowd "they ever had" at the fair.

As of August 10, Trump remained ahead in the race for the Republican nomination, with an estimated 53.4 percent of the vote, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight. DeSantis, who has established himself as the former president's main rival, trailed him with 14.3 percent of the vote—a drop from the 21.5 percent mark he reached the month before, on July 10.

"I think it's a great honor to be here; we have a record set, the record is the largest crowd they ever had, and I can see that," Trump told reporters during the event, as shown in a video shared by Real America's Voice. "I can see that because you cannot get any more people here, and I am very honored by it; it's a tremendous thing."

He repeated that the crowd was the biggest that ever showed up at the event, adding that he was "very happy" about it. The next day, he boasted about the size of the crowd on his social media platform, Truth Social.

"Ron DeSanctimonious drew almost no crowd at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday," wrote Trump late on Sunday. "Neither did any other candidate with the exception of your favorite President, me. Thousands and thousands of people attended, breaking all State Fair records. Thank you Iowa, will be back soon!"

But MeidasTouch, an independent news network that declares itself to be "unapologetically pro-democracy" and has been critical of Trump in the past, revealed that the crowd gathered for Trump at the Iowa State Fair was nothing out of the ordinary for the high-profile event, one of the oldest and largest agricultural and industrial expositions in the country.

"It wasn't even close to being a record despite Trump's claims," the news network wrote, stating that the 11-day event averages crowds of about 110,000 people per day, with a slightly bigger attendance on weekends. It also pointed out that Trump stayed at the fair for only 45 minutes, while attendance figures are released the following afternoon—meaning the former president couldn't know the exact number of people at the event at that point.

Attendance figures for Saturday, released the day after and available on the fair's website, showed that the total attendance was 118,286—a number that falls close to the average for the event.

According to official data shared by the Iowa State Fair, the event broke its one-day all-time record for attendance on Saturday, August 20, 2022, with a crowd of 128,298 people, despite the fact that it was raining on the day. The previous record was 127,277, reached on Saturday, August 17, 1991.

Newsweek has contacted Trump and DeSantis' campaign teams for comment by email.