It would’ve been cheaper to give every attendee $200 and a copy of “The Art of the Deal.”
President Trump’s June 20th rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma cost $2.2 million to produce, including more than half a million dollars for facilities rental and $400,000 for audio/visual services, according to The New York Times.
The event management company, Arcus Group, LLC, received the largest amount paid: more than $670,000. Presumably, all contractors have been paid, not a given with the Trump campaign.
The total amount paid equates to more than $300 per attendee, with the group estimated to be 6,900 in the arena that holds 19,000.
The Tulsa rally, for which Trump boasted to have had more than one million ticket requests, was sparsely attended with vast swathes of seats remaining empty and floor space ample. It was planned to reignite Trump’s staggering campaign, which trailed Biden in the polls and still does.
Instead, the event was lightly attended and future rallies were canceled or postponed to unnamed later dates. In late June and early July, Tulsa experienced a spike in coronavirus cases which some public health professionals directly attributed to the rally.