President stopped during El Paso hospital tour to admire staffer’s ‘TRUMP’ socks and make questionable boast that his February rally there had thousands more people than ‘crazy Beto’ O’Rourke

• President stopped to talk with hospital staff in El Paso on Wednesday while he was visiting survivors of a mass-shooting
• He praised medical professionals but then riffed on the size of his crowd at a February rally, slamming ‘crazy Beto’ O’Rourke and saying he had fewer people 
• Trump also praised a man who said he was in the front row of that rally, and who wore ‘TRUMP’ socks to the hospital
• White House has blasted Demorcatic partisans for turning the consoler-in-chief visits to El Paso and Dayton as opportunities to push gun control measures
• They also say Trump was greeted like a ‘Rock Star’ – but didn’t let reporters into the hospital to see it

As Donald Trump toured the El Paso, Texas hospital where survivors of Saturday’s gun massacre are recovering, he stopped to boast about the thousands of his supporters who turned out to see him at a rally in February – and mock 2020 rival Robert ‘Beto’ O’Rourke for making a smaller showing.

The White House said Wednesday that the president’s visit was full of ‘enthusiasm and love,’ and that he was treated like ‘a Rock Star,’ although reporters who traveled on Air Force One weren’t permitted inside the hospital to see it. 

Images and brief video footage it released support that contention; two minutes of cellphone video shot in one room where Trump greeted doctors, nurses and other staffers provided the first unvetted look inside.

‘I was here three months ago. We made a speech … That place – packed, right? 

‘We had twice the number outside,’ he added. ‘And then you had this crazy Beto. Beto had like 400 people in a parking lot. They said, “His crowd was wonderful.” But we have something.’

Video of Trump, shot by an unknown person, appeared on the Twitter feed of KDBC-TV, the CBS affiliate in El Paso.

Trump boasted Wednesday about his February El Paso rally, which drew a counter-rally from Robert ‘Beto’ O’Rourke

O’Rourke’s outside rally crowd numbered in the thousands, as did Trumps both inside and the outside overflow

Pro-Trump partisans made sure to circulate images of the Trump overflow crowd as word spread that O’Rourke had drawn a sizable audience

The city of El Paso says the Trump campaign still owes it $569,204.63 for police and other public safety costs associated with his rally. That includes nearly $100,000 in late fees. 

Most of those expenses related to the El Paso Police Department. Trump praised officers at the hospital on Wednesday for their heroism.

A Trump 2020 campaign official did not respond to a question on Thursday about when those expenses will be paid. 

Trump praised the University Medical Center of El Paso’s staff, saying that while they have been ‘pretty busy’ saving lives, ‘they’re talking about you all over the world. The job you’ve done is incredible.’

At one point a man in the room who said he was in the front row at the president’s February rally pulled up his pant leg to show off a pair of socks bearing Trump’s name in large, bold letters. 

‘Whoa! Oh, wow! Look at that!’ the president said. ‘Don’t tell it to the press because they won’t even believe it.’

‘They only believe it on voting day, on the day of the vote. They say, “What happened? What happened?”‘

The question of which rally drew a larger live audience – Trump’s or O’Rourke’s – remains unanswered. The events happened about 200 yards apart.

Images from video shot outside the arena show thousands of overflow viewers standing and watching in the Coliseum parking lot as Trump spoke inside. 

‘Whoa! Oh, wow! Look at that!’ the president said when a man at the University Medical Center of El Paso showed off his ‘TRUMP’ socks

The city of El Paso says the Trump campaign still owes it $569,204.63 for police and other public safety costs associated with his rally; that includes nearly $100,000 in late fees

Days later the president told reporters at the White House: that he had heard O’Rourke drew ‘less than 1,000 people’ and ‘we probably had 25,000 people outside the arena.’ 

MSNBC reported that an estimated 7,000 people attended O’Rourke’s event. Bloomberg News cited an El Paso Police Department estimate of between 10,000 and 15,000. 

The president said during his El Paso rally that the arena ‘holds 8,000,’ but praised the fire marshal for allowing 10,000 inside.  

An El Paso Fire Department spokesman later said Trump got no special treatment, and that only 6,500 were permitted to come in. He also noted that ‘thousands’ were watching outside, but estimated that the total ‘might be 10,000.’

Trump claimed during his speech that night that ‘69,000 people signed up to be here.’

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