Eric Trump has been roasted for falsely claiming that “tens and tens of thousands” of Americans came out to support his father on the day of his arrest and arraignment.
Donald Trump’s son made the outlandish claim in an interview on Fox News on Tuesday night, just hours after his father became the first current or former US president to ever face criminal charges.
“When we got off the plane and you saw tens and tens of thousands of people lining the streets all the way from Palm Beach International airport to Mar-a-Lago waving American flags and Trump 2024 flags, Sean the love is incredible,” he told host Sean Hannity.
“No one has ever seen that kind of love and this is coming off of the day that the 45th president of the United States was indicted and the streets are lined with people literally singing ‘god bless America’.”
In Manhattan, Eric also claimed that “every single intersection was closed” and that there “was an army outside of the courthouse” for his father’s arrival – before also questioning “how many people died” because the NYPD was working on securing the area around the courthouse.
Eric’s comments left social media users baffled as – in reality – there was little in the way of action from Mr Trump’s supporters on the historic day.
Outside the Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday, protesters were vastly outnumbered by members of the media.
The small crowds of Mr Trump supporters who did gather were met by counterprotesters, with some brief clashes but no widescale unrest.
MAGA favourites Marjorie Taylor Greene and George Santos held a pro-Trump protest in a park close to the courthouse – but were quickly driven out.
Over in Florida, the turnout was equally muted – with small groups of supporters dotted along parts of his journey from Mar-a-Lago to the airport.
Twitter users questioned whether Eric was “hallucinating” the hugely inflated crowd size – or had actually meant to miss the word “thousands” off his comments.
“I think he meant tens and tens of people,” one person tweeted.
“Where were they? The camera missed them? All of them?” added someone else.
Another person joined in: “I’ve seen bigger crowds for my daughter’s high school football team.”
Others took aim at the maths ability of Eric – who works for the Trump Organization.
“No wonder they have so many bankruptcies, none of them are very good with large numbers,” one person said.
“To be fair, numbers and thinking in general aren’t his strong suits, not that he has any,” chimed another.
In a historic day for America, Mr Trump was charged on Tuesday with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal illegal activity connected to his 2016 presidential campaign.
The “catch and kill” campaign allegedly involved Mr Trump and his then-attorney Michael Cohen making hush money payments during the 2016 run to suppress negative information about him by silencing individuals over alleged affairs he had with women .
Three specific alleged affairs and hush money payments were mentioned in the charging documents – a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, a $150,000 to former playboy model Karen McDougal and a $30,000 payment to a doorman at Trump Tower who claimed he had information that Mr Trump had fathered a child with a woman while married to Melania Trump.
Mr Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” the charging documents read.
Each of the 34 criminal charges relates to an individual entry in the Trump Organization’s business records.
Mr Trump surrendered to Manhattan authorities on Tuesday afternoon and was officially arrested on criminal charges.
He then appeared in court for his arraignment before Judge Juan Merchan – the same judge who sentenced the Trump Organization and its CFO last year.
Cutting a glum figure, the former president defiantly pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
After flying back to Mar-a-Lago in Florida, he launched into a speech railing against the criminal charges, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge – in a move that could risk him being placed under a gag order.
