When two true forces of nature combine, incredible things can happen. When K-pop fans united with progressive TikTokers this month, world-shaking results were all but inevitable.
Over the past couple of weeks the two Gen Z-powered groups strategised through social media to reserve seats at a Trump rally that was scheduled to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma last Friday 19 June. And then, obviously, not turn up. Genius.
“It’s first-come first-served, so the tickets that were reserved aren’t being held from anyone. So there was nobody really stopping anybody from going inside whatsoever,” said Elijah Daniel, one of the organisers behind the action, explaining in a BBC interview that the intention behind the campaign wasn’t to prevent supporters from attending. “I think the large campaign that the K-pop community and the TikTok community did was more of showing how he boasts his numbers, including fake ones that are clearly inflated.”
Despite the Trump campaign maintaining that it was on top of “bogus” reservations, the team was all too happy to report that they had received around one million ticket requests. Hook, line, and sinker.
Raising expectations of the rally’s popularity made its final turn-out of 6,000 look even more abysmal than it would have on its own. In a perfect storm of pandemic fears, bottoming approval ratings, and social media hacktivism, the orange-skinned tyrant of the US got well and truly shown up.