Journalists, pundits, and pollsters critiqued President Donald J. Trump’s fixation on his crowds—often suggesting they were smaller than he boasted or meaningless in connection to electoral or legislative outcomes. This project takes a qualitative rather than a quantitative stance to interpreting the meaning of Trump’s crowds. In doing so, we find messages presented his rallies as (1) engaging multiple audiences, (2) eliciting feedback from his base to sharpen his talking points, and (3) enraging his devotees to act on his behalf. These types of communications did two things that traditional polling data are unlikely to do: they garnered attention and vast recirculation in the contemporary media environment and have been linked to the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. This article draws from scholarship on Trump, news coverage, and social media posts to advance these themes, invites a more nuanced look at crowds as a complement to traditional understandings of public opinion, and closes by posing paths for future discussions of them.

记者、权威人士和民意测验专家批评唐纳德·J·特朗普总统对他的人群的执着——通常暗示他们比他吹嘘的要小，或者在选举或立法结果方面毫无意义。该项目采用定性而非定量的立场来解释特朗普人群的含义。在这样做的过程中，我们发现他的集会信息显示为（1）吸引多位观众，（2）从他的基地获得反馈以加强他的谈话要点，以及（3）激怒他的信徒代表他采取行动。这些类型的通讯做了两件传统民意调查数据不太可能做的事情：它们在当代媒体环境中获得了关注和广泛的再循环，并与 2021 年 1 月 6 日美国国会大厦的起义有关。本文借鉴了特朗普，新闻报道，