Donald Trump’s bid to revive his re-election campaign was plunged into chaos at the weekend as a stadium he believed would be packed for a rally was more than half empty.
And the US president was left fuming after an army of students duped him into thinking a million people had clamoured for spaces – by booking tickets then not turning up.
Just 6,200 supporters were inside the 19,000-capacity BOK Centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by the time Mr Trump took to the stage to give a rambling speech in which he failed to address the growing racial tensions sweeping America.
And to compound his anger, only 20 people had assembled in an overflow area that days earlier he bragged would be filled with 40,000 fans unable to get in.