PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Donald Trump spent nearly a decade bragging to his audience. Lately he’s been making the same boasts to empty seats.

In his third presidential campaign, Trump finds himself for the first time facing an opponent who is holding his own massive rallies, drawing even more attention to the fact that his crowds, however enthusiastic, have sometimes failed to fill large rooms and often shrink as it expands.

In North Carolina over the weekend, the former president and Republican candidate spoke at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, where the lower level of the 22,000-seat arena remained empty with the upper level completely blocked off.

“We had the largest gatherings in the history of any country. Every gathering is full,” he falsely claimed. “There are no empty seats.”

It began Monday, the day before the election, in Raleigh, North Carolina, where a late-arriving crowd nearly filled the hall but left a handful of seats empty. In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump took the stage at Santander Arena, where there were sections of empty seats in the 7,200-seat arena. The campaign hung a large American flag near the back of the arena, blocking the view of several sections of seats that remained empty.

He then went to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, where the upper level seats were once again blocked off.

The former president’s crowds still numbered in the thousands and routinely roared as he spoke. But the scenes offered a notable contrast to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ biggest events this fall — and to the volume and mood of Trump’s crowds eight years ago when he first ran for and won the presidency .

To be sure, crowd sizes do not necessarily predict election results. And his core supporters this year remain engaged enough that he filled Madison Square Garden, in heavily Democratic New York, just a few days ago.

Still, Trump drew smaller crowds in the latter part of the campaign than in previous elections, particularly during his first campaign, when his mass events became a political phenomenon. This fall, Trump crowds have also often dwindled as the former president’s lengthy speeches stretch into their second hour.

People regularly leave while he speaks, sometimes en masse, after waiting several hours for a seat.

There are reasons why some people may be tired.

Trump returns to the same battleground states again and again, sometimes speaking in the same places and even venues. Trump’s smallest crowd in Greensboro, for example, came eight days after his campaign in the same city.

He’s also often late, recently starting out three hours late in Traverse City, Michigan, after recording an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.

But whatever the explanation, the former reality TV star and accomplished showman remains clearly invested in the performative aspect of presidential politics and clearly concerned that Harris, unlike Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Joe Biden in 2020, can match and even exceed his signature campaign tactic. . Harris, for example, recently filled the grand Coliseum in Greensboro.

Democrats have embraced this dynamic as a way to get under Trump’s skin. Former President Barack Obama, the last national figure before Trump and Harris to make mass rallies a key part of his campaigns, highlighted Trump’s “strange obsession” with crowd size during his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. Obama added mocking hand gestures about size that evoked Trump’s own comments during his first campaign about hand size and his implication that they reflected his manhood.

Harris brought up the size of the crowd during her only debate against Trump, one of several times she deflected the former president during their 90-minute exchange. She urged people to attend Trump rallies to understand that his time was over.

In Pittsburgh on Monday night, Trump took digs at Beyoncé’s appearance at a recent Harris rally that drew more than 30,000 people. The megastar introduced Harris to Houston but did not play.

Harris campaigned with a slew of celebrities and pop stars during the final days of the campaign, ending with a rally in Philadelphia featuring Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga. The star of Trump’s show, meanwhile, remains the former president.

In recent days, he has shown a nostalgic side both about the rallies and the crowds that come to see him, no matter how large they are.

“I have one left,” he said in Pittsburgh, thinking wistfully of his late-night event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “And remember, rallies are the most exciting thing. There will never be gatherings like this. This will never happen again. » ——

Barrow reported from Washington. Jonathan J. Cooper contributed from Phoenix.