Donald Trump once used a presidential primary debate to offer assurance that there was no need to worry about the size of his hands or, indeed, his manhood. “I guarantee you there’s no problem,” he told the audience.
But there is a problem over the size of his crowds.
The US president has reportedly dispensed with a loyal aide after his campaign-style rally in Phoenix, Arizona, last week was less than full.
With TV cameras showing gaps on the concrete floor of the Phoenix convention center, Trump watched on a backstage monitor with growing displeasure, the Bloomberg agency reported.
Quick GuideFive key departures in six months of Trump's presidency
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Anthony Scaramucci (10 days)
Named director of communications after having been denied a White House role earlier, the New York financier and Republican fundraiser promptly threatened to fire everyone in his team over leaks. He also staged a combative and contradictory briefing room debut and talkshow tour; sought to bat away questions about suspiciously liberal pronouncements in his past and support for Trump’s Republican enemies; deleted tweets; warred openly with the former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and seemingly forced him out; compared the struggle to take healthcare away from millions of Americans to Lincoln’s battle against slavery; poured obscene invective about leakers, Priebus and Steve Bannon down the phone to a New Yorker reporter; missed the birth of his son; saw his wife file for divorce; and was asked to resign.
Michael Flynn (23 days)
Trump’s first national security adviser – one of four generals the president has employed – resigned after it was revealed he misled Vice-President Mike Pence over his contacts with Russians during the election campaign. It was later reported that Yates had warned the White House Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
James Comey (110 days)
The most shocking firing of them all. Trump sacked his FBI director, by messenger rather than in person, as congressional and justice department investigations into links between Trump aides and Russia gathered pace. Lest anyone retain any doubt about why Trump pressed the big red button, he told NBC in a primetime interview the firing was tied to “this Russia thing”. The reverberations will be felt for some time yet.
Sean Spicer (183 days)
The long-suffering but loyal surrogate for the president handed in his resignationin response to Scaramucci’s appointment. A Republican insider and Priebus ally, he never settled into the press secretary role after an infamous debut in which he angrily insisted Trump’s fantastic version of crowd sizes at the inauguration were true. Achieving by way of Melissa McCarthy’s lethal Saturday Night Live impression a somewhat dubious celebrity, his days at the White House were long rumoured to be numbered. His departure on a point of principle having seemingly been justified only 10 days later, he may now claim a sort of hollow vindication.
Reince Priebus (189 days)
The former Republican National Committee chair stayed loyal – at least in public – to Trump through Friday, when he was told his time was up. He stayed loyal after handing in his resignation too, rhapsodising about the president and his mission in interviews with CNN and, of course, Fox News. But it seemed Priebus’s card had alway been marked, less over his initial blocking of Scaramucci, which enraged the Mooch, or by his closeness to the House speaker, Paul Ryan, than by his private advice to Trump to quit the presidential race after 8 October, when the infamous Access Hollywood “Gropegate” tape was published. The Washington Post reported that Priebus was thus never considered a member of the “Oct 8th coalition”, a name for the inner cabal of Trumpites who have never wavered, however low their boss’s reputation has sunk.
In fact, as speakers including vice-president Mike Pence and housing secretary Ben Carson fired up the audience, most of those gaps were plugged, even though supporters had to run the gauntlet of protesters outside the venue.
“Wow, what a crowd,” Trump began. “What a crowd.” There were 10,000 people in attendance, according to city officials, although some did filter out before the end.
George Gigicos, a former White House director of advance who had organised the event as a contractor to the Republican national committee (RNC), bore the brunt of Trump’s wrath, according to Bloomberg. He was told he would never manage a Trump rally again by the president’s longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller, who in May hand-delivered a letter from the president firing FBI director James Comey.
The president made headlines at the Phoenix rally with his fierce attacks on the media, threat to shut down the government over funding for his border wall and tease about a pardon for sheriff Joe Arpaio, which he delivered three days later.
Bloomberg reported that Gigicos has organised all of Trump’s signature campaign events and occasional rallies since entering office. Gigicos left his White House job as director of advance on 31 July to return to his consulting business. But he continued to work for Trump’s re-election campaign and the RNC.
But CNN suggested that Gigicos may not be finished, reporting: “’George will be back,’ one source familiar with the matter said, noting that Trump’s angry tirades are ‘not uncommon’. ‘This is what (Trump) does. He tries to get under your skin.’ ‘It wasn’t great, but it also wasn’t the worst thing I had ever seen,’ another source said.”
Trump appears to feed off the energy of rallies and the roar of the crowd. He has already held eight, in eight different states, since becoming president, a rate of more than one month.
Like a diva with a list of demands for their dressing room, he insists that every detail is just right. In Pensacola, Florida, in January last year, he complained about the “son of a bitch” who installed a faulty microphone, adding: “Do you hear that George? Don’t pay him. Don’t pay him. And you gotta be tough with your people because they’ll pay, they don’t care. They’ll pay.”
On Tuesday, surveying the havoc wreaked by tropical storm Harvey in Texas, Trump emerged from a fire station in Annaville, Corpus Christi, between two fire trucks and got up on a ladder. There were some cheers and chants of “USA! USA!” and he could not resist remarking: “What a crowd, what a turn out.”
He then held up the Texan flag to loud cheers. Most of the crowd were supporters, but not all, according to a pool report. One banner read, “Liar, cheat, racist” another read “Latinas against Trump”, and another “You pardoned Joe, what about Jose?”
Should a dispute arise over the size of this crowd, Trump will no longer be able to deploy Sean Spicer, who as press secretary in January berated reporters over their coverage of his inauguration, claiming it had the biggest turnout ever, even though photographic evidence showed otherwise. Spicer quit last month.