Trump boasts of bigger El Paso crowd than Beto rally held at same time

President Trump on Monday boasted that his El Paso campaign rally drew far more people than the one former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) headlined across town, claiming that he had more than “35,000 people” attending.

“A young man who’s got very little going for himself except he’s got a great first name. He challenged us. We have, say, 35,000 people tonight, and he has, say, 200 people, 300 people,” Trump said. “Not too good. In fact what I would do, that may be the end of his presidential bid.”

{mosads}The El Paso County Coliseum seats about 11,000 people, according to NBC News. Trump said earlier in the evening that about 10,000 people were inside and thousands more were watching on screens outside.

Trump also later claimed that the media would not acknowledge the disparity between the two rallies. 

“They will say Beto O’Rourke — that’s his last name, right, O’Rourke? — had a wonderful rally of about 15 people,” he said. 

Bloomberg News reported that O’Rourke’s rally drew between 10,000 and 15,000 people.

The comments came as Trump held a rally in El Paso calling for funding for a wall along the southern border. O’Rourke headlined a rally in the border city designed to oppose Trump’s immigration stances and counter his claims about a wall making the Texas city safer.

The former Democratic lawmaker, who’s mulling a presidential run, also participated in a march ahead of the rally in which hundreds of demonstrators protested against the president. 

O’Rourke said in his speech that his hometown was “safe not because of walls but in spite of walls.”

“With the eyes of the country upon us, all of you together are going to make our stand in one of the safest cities in the United States of America. Safe not because of walls but in spite of walls,” O’Rourke said.