Take that, Trump-hating TikTok tricksters!
Thousands of teens tried to sabotage a Staten Island Republican rally last week by hoarding online tickets — just as they did to embarrass President Trump in Tulsa, Okla. in June.
But the GOP bamboozled them into pouring nearly $16,000 into party coffers instead.
On Sept. 19, out-of-staters using fake, frequently lewd names — including “Grabemby DePussay,” “Ivana Punchyou” and “F–kyou Trump” — began signing up online for the “TRiUMPh Rally,” a free get-out-the-vote event.
“We had about 1,500 RSVPs from Staten Islanders. Then all of a sudden we started seeing the numbers tick up to 10,000, 15,000, 75,000,” Staten Island GOP chairman Brendan Lantry told The Post. “We knew something was not right.”
Lantry’s wife Jessica, an avid TikTok user, soon traced the sign-ups to their source: a clip posted earlier that day by a 19-year-old from Brooklyn calling herself Felisrae.
“Do you hate this orange bitch as much as I do?” the teen asks in a 51-second video. “It turns out that Trump is having a rally in Staten Island.
“So what I did was, I reserved myself two seats. But I’m pretty sure that I have something to do that day,” she says gleefully. “So, do what you want with this information.”
The video rocketed around social media, racking up 523,000 views and 153,000 likes — and spurred scores of adults to spread the word.
“Register for this. I did,” Debbie Ingber Deutsch of Armonk, NY wrote on Facebook. “Let’s learn from Gen Z and Tulsa!”
“Order them so their numbers will be way off and they’ll expect more people,” explained Twitter user Earth Angel from Cheshire, Conn.
As in Tulsa, the trolls’ goal was to snatch up as many tickets as possible, so that the event would become a sea of no-shows. Trump foes — led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — preened when the president’s first post-lockdown campaign rally in June was an attendance bust.
“You just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/fake ticket reservations,” AOC tweeted. “Y’all make me so proud.”
To deter the troublemakers, Lantry added a nonrefundable $5 fee to the online sign-up form.
“But they kept coming,” Lantry said. “From Colorado and California and Chicago and Houston, all over the country.”
Multiple “Ruth Ginsbergs” — from Salisbury, Md., and Greensboro, N.C. — gladly paid for their ducats.
By the time the Oct. 3 rally began in a commercial parking lot on the South Shore, the Trump-haters had shelled out $15,785 to buy more than 3,000 vouchers they had no intention of using.
“They hate this president so much that they’re willing to donate to the Republican Party to troll him,” Lantry said.
And the thousands of Trump-hating no-shows were barely missed. No seats were provided at the open-air rally, and the event drew 2,500 locals, who filmed a get-well message for Trump as he recuperated from his bout with COVID-19.
“Thank you, progressives, for helping us put on a successful rally,” Lantry said.
The Link LonkOctober 11, 2020 at 01:48AM
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Staten Island GOP turns tables on Trump-hating teen TikTok trolls - New York Post
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Troll
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