Shawn McCreesh writes:

When former President Donald J. Trump walked onto the stage at his rally in Atlanta on Saturday, fog machines shot white plumes of smoke into the air, heralding his arrival.

If you looked closely, you could almost imagine steam pouring out of his ears, too. All week long, something had been giving him the vapors.

“Crazy Kamala,” he fumed a minute into his speech. “She was here a week ago — lots of empty seats — but the crowd she got was because she had entertainers.”

Four days earlier, Vice President Kamala Harris had packed about the same number of people (10,000) into the arena, the Georgia State University Convocation Center. It was the first major rally of her newborn campaign, and she had two rappers (Quavo and Megan Thee Stallion) on hand to hype up her crowd.

Mr. Trump, who has been shunned by much of the entertainment industry, spun this as somehow cheating in the all-important competition over crowd size.

“I don’t need entertainers,” he said on Saturday. “I fill the stadium because I’m making America great again.”

The numbers game has long been of paramount importance for Mr. Trump. As a reality television star, he was obsessed with ratings (“What is it about me that gets Larry King his highest ratings?” he wrote in one of his books). This only intensified once he entered politics. He spent his first full day in office as president trying to convince the news media that his inauguration crowd was larger than the Women’s March the day before. (It was not.)

The crowds he has drawn to his rallies this campaign season have been as big as ever. Whether in blistering heat or deep freeze, his supporters line up for hours beforehand to see him. Mr. Trump’s previous two rivals, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, could never compete with him on this front. What will it mean if his new challenger can?

Ms. Harris’s rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, when she is expected to unveil her running mate, is likely to be a blowout. After that, she’s going on tour, holding rallies in western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas. It’s all starting to screw with Mr. Trump’s psyche. [Continue reading…]