Trump reportedly told a longtime aide that he'd never manage a Trump rally again because his crowd in Arizona was too small
Bloomberg reported that the president became displeased by the relatively sparse attendance at his event in Arizona after seeing some shots on television that showed empty space at the Phoenix Convention Center.
Trump, who famously obsessed with crowd sizes during the 2016 presidential campaign and boasted that the crowds were a predictor of his overall popularity, blamed the poor attendance on his longtime aide George Gigicos, who organized the event as a contractor for the Republican National Committee.
According to Bloomberg, Trump dispatched his personal bodyguard Keith Schiller to tell Gigicos that he was barred from organizing future rallies for the president. The measure was a sharp rebuke of Gigicos, who was one of Trump's few remaining original campaign aides, but earlier this month left his job as the White House director of scheduling and advance.
But while the president may have blamed Gigicos for sparse attendance during several warm-up speakers, his own performance likely contributed to thinning crowds later in the evening.
The Washington Post reported that many attendees lost interest as the speech continued, and filed out before the event was finished.