The 'Students for Trump' campaign scrapped online registration for his next event after TikTok teens hijacked sign-ups for his Tulsa rally

• A Students for Trump event in Phoenix, where President Donald Trump is expected to speak Tuesday, abruptly halted online registrations on Monday.
• It is unclear why the form was removed.
• In the run-up to the event, many people on Twitter encouraged K-pop fans and TikTokers to flood the form with fake sign-ups.
• The same tactic had been used prior to Trump's Tulsa rally on June 20, which had a much lower turnout than expected.
• The Trump campaign has privately admitted that online activism had an impact on the inflated expectations.

The Students for Trump group abruptly suspended online registration ahead of the president's Tuesday rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

A sign-up form for the event to see Trump speak had been active on the campaign website until Monday.

It was replaced with a notice on the event page, which said: "The registration form has closed, but we would still love to see you tomorrow. If you would like to attend the event and see President Trump, please come to the venue."

It's not clear how long the registration form was active on the site.

The Phoenix event is the second on Trump's campaign trail since coronavirus lockdowns, and comes three days after a poorly-attended rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20.

Prior to the Tulsa rally, the Trump campaign had boasted of huge interest in the event — saying that almost a million people had registered their interest — but the 19,000-seat venue ultimately attracted around 6,200 people.

Hundreds of teenagers on TikTok and K-pop fans said they reserved tickets for the rally with no plans to show up — which likely contributed to the Trump campaign's inflated expectations.

The low turnout was likely also due to coronavirus fears: shortly before the rally it was reported that six members of the Trump campaign tested positive for the coronavirus.

Trump was reportedly furious at the low turnout. His campaign has blamed protesters, fears over the coronavirus, and the media for the turnout. However, according to reports, campaign officials have privately admitted that online tricksters may have falsely inflated the numbers with disingenuous sign-ups.

Following the announcement of the Phoenix student event, people on Twitter suggested that the same tactic should be used:

Another Twitter account named for the Anonymous activist movement, with 7.5 million followers, tweeted: "Just putting it out that there are free tickets to see Trump in Arizona," and included the #Kpop and #Kpopstans hashtags.

According to MailOnline, the now-cached web form asked for a name, email and phone number, as well as details of social media profiles, age, and name of school attended.

A disclaimer box, which asks attendees to acknowledge the coronavirus risk of attending the event, and "Submit" button remain on the site. A sign-up form to subscribe to Students for Trump updates remains on the site as well.

Clicking the button now leads to an error page, as can be seen here:

Neither the Trump campaign nor Students for Trump immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment on the deleted registration form.

The Phoenix event is due to be held at Dream City Church. It is expected to be smaller in size than the Tulsa event.

The church released a statement on June 12 saying the rental is purely in order to bring in funds for its religious mission, and "does not constitute endorsement of the opinions of its renters."

• Read more:
• TikTok teens say they tanked Trump's comeback rally in Tulsa by reserving thousands of tickets and not showing up
• The Trump campaign is rethinking massive arena rallies after Saturday's poor turnout in Tulsa
• Trump had a meltdown and yelled at aides backstage when he realized how empty his rally in Tulsa was, reports say
• 2 Trump campaign staffers who were at the president's Tulsa rally tested positive for COVID-19