K-Pop fans and TikTokers joined forces over the weekend to claim tickets to President
Trump’s Tulsa rally, to ultimately not use, causing his turnout to look weak and completely
vacant.
We knew they were good, but we didn’t know they were THAT good…
Over the past few weeks, it was announced that Donald Trump would be holding a rally
in Tulsa, Oklahoma, conveniently on Juneteeth, and if you’re unaware of what I mean by
‘conveniently’ just google “Juneteenth” and the “Tulsa Massacre.”
Once many people got word it would be changed to Saturday, K-Pop fans and TikTok users alike,
joined forces to claim tickets to the rally, which caused numbers to plummet as thousands
of seats were left empty in the 19,000-seat venue.
This all started when the Trump campaign’s official @TeamTrump Twitter account posted
a tweet asking Trump supporters to register for a free seat to the upcoming rally.
At one point, Trump even went as far as to brag about receiving over a million RSVPs
via Twitter.
Last week, K-Pop fan accounts began sharing the tweet, along with how to register, and
encouraged others to snag a seat, only to not show up.
The trend went viral over the past week, which led many outlets to also get in on the action.
CNN reported that the trend then spread over to TikTok when 51-year-old Iowa native Mary
Jo Laupp seemed to have led the charge on getting TikTokers to input their cell phone
numbers, which holds a seat, and just not show up, leaving Trump to appear onstage only
to see an empty arena.
In her TikTok video, Mary Jo said, “All of those of us that want to see this 19,000
seat auditorium barely filled or completely empty go reserve tickets now and leave him
standing alone there on the stage.”
Many other users shared tweets and TikTok videos, which gained millions of views which
were then deleted after a day or two in order to keep their plan underwraps and from spreading
to mainstream Internet.
YouTuber Elijah Daniel revealed that the trend spread mostly through the K-Pop fandom and
“Alt TikTok,” which is basically the “Elite TikTok” AKA a subset of TikTok with a niche
queer culture focused on trolling "straight TikTokers" and other very specific meme points.
Elijah revealed QUOTE, “We kept it on the quiet side where people do pranks and a lot
of activism.
K-pop Twitter and Alt TikTok have a good alliance where they spread information amongst each
other very quickly.
They all know the algorithms and how they can boost videos to get where they want.”
It seems as though fans clearly followed suit and had much success in their efforts as photos
reveal that the top section of the arena during Trump’s rally was completely barren.
When it was reported that “radical protesters, fueled by a week of apocalyptic media coverage”
was the cause of Trump’s poor turnout, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fired
back on Twitter saying, “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded
the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people
wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID.
Shout out to Zoomers.
Y’all make me so proud.”
Longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt also tweeted, “The teens of America have
struck a savage blow against @realDonaldTrump” annnnnd he wasn’t wrong.
K-Pop fans even went as far as to compare side-by-side photos of Trump’s Tulsa rally
turnout compared to a sold-out BTS show.
Singer P!nk, who has been very vocal about her distaste toward the current presidency,
even spoke out following the news of the turnout, tweeting, “I think I sold that same place
out in five minutes.”
Another user tweeted his shock when he revealed that his own daughter had known about the
Internet’s ploy to dismantle the rally for a week.
He said, “So my teen daughter, who has Snapchat and TikTok accounts, walked in and said to
me ‘So did it work?
Did the teens get all the tickets to the Trump rally?’
She's known about this ALL WEEK and I just learned this an hour ago…”
But if you’re involved in the K-Pop fandom, or you’re even remotely aware of their power,
this effort shouldn’t come as THAT much of a surprise.
In the past month alone, K-Pop fans have used their social media strength to drown out racist
voices by posting images of K-Pop groups using anti-Black hashtags, including #WhiteoutWednesday
and #WhiteLivesMatter.
Another example of K-Pop power occurred when the Dallas Police Department asked people
on Twitter to submit any video footage of “illegal activity from the protests” to
the iWatch Dallas app, which led K-Pop fans to flood the app with fancams of K-Pop artists.
The app ultimately crashed and the fandom won again.
Following news of BTS’ massive $1 million donation in support of the Black Lives Matter
movement, BTS fan-based charity group “One In An ARMY” then helped raise another $1
million for the cause.
K-Pop groups began these massive charitable acts about two decades ago when groups began
asking their fans to give to charity instead of sending them gifts.
Since then, it’s widely known that K-pop fandoms in South Korea will do volunteer work
and donate to charity in their idol’s name.
Even now at some BTS concerts, fans can find bins for donating goods to local charities.
These are just a few of many ways that the K-Pop community is set on giving back and
making the world a better place, so hopefully by hearing their stories, your ‘inner-activist’
is sparked, and you’re ready to join these groups on their mission to change the world
for the better.
For more updates on what’s going on around the U.S., click right over here for another
Clevver video.
And be sure to let me know all your thoughts on the K-Pop and TikTok fandoms’ efforts
in causing Trump’s turnout to go down in flames down here in the comments.
I’m your host Emile Ennis Jr., see you next time!