DALLAS — After failing to get the audience numbers in Florida he had hoped for, former President Donald Trump is bringing his “History Tour” roadshow to North Texas this weekend to rally supporters.
Trump will headline two events in Dallas Sunday. The first will be at the downtown First Baptist Dallas Church, where he will take the stage with one of his most ardent supporters on the Christian Right, Dr. Robert Jeffress.
Later in the afternoon, Trump will be at the American Airlines Center with Bill O’Reilly, a former Fox News host, where they will put on their fourth stop in what he’s calling the “History Tour.”
The show appears to be a mix of Trump talking about his administration during his term as president, with a bit of campaigning for a possible second run at the White House in 2024.
“I will be focusing on greatness for our Country, something seldom discussed in political dialogue,” Trump said in a statement promoting the tour. “If we don’t make our Country great again, we will soon no longer have a Country!”
The event comes a few days after a similar Trump event in Orlando, Fla., which only sold about 62% of the 8,700 seats reserved for the event in the city’s Amway Center, according to the Orlando Sentinal.
The paper reported that audience members who purchased less expensive seats were moved down to empty, more expensive seats to make the stadium appear full. The night before, Trump’s roadshow was in Sunshine, Fla., where there was also a smaller-than-expected crowd, the Sentinal reported.
Trump and O’Reilly will be in Houston Saturday, where his tour is scheduled at the 19,000-seat Toyota Center. There appeared to be plenty of tickets left for that show on the Ticketmaster website.
In July, Politico reported that pre-sale tickets were slow to pick up ahead of the tour’s schedule, despite the fact that Trump promised “fun, fun, fun for everyone who attends.”
Tickets for the Dallas show on Ticketmaster showed some seats still available with prices ranging from $106 to $206. The American Airlines Center did not immediately return calls asking about the number of seats allotted for Sunday’s event in Dallas and how many have sold. The stadium, the home court and ice rink of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars, respectively, can seat 20,000.
Jeffress, the senior pastor at the First Baptist Dallas megachurch, has called Trump the “greatest president of my lifetime” and has frequently defended the former president on Fox News.
Last year, just days after an attack on the Capitol, led by Trump supporters who claimed the 2020 election was stolen, Jeffress hosted a Christmas sermon entitled “How Should Christians Respond to President Joe Biden?"
Jeffress has condemned the Jan. 6 Capitol riots but remains a strong Trump supporter.
His sermon for this Sunday’s Christmas event is themed "What If There Were No Christmas?" Trump is scheduled to speak after in the church’s large auditorium on its sprawling, downtown campus.
“President Trump is known for his love for Christmas and what it represents. We are thrilled to have him join us this Sunday morning,” the church’s website said about the event.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has spoken at the Frist Baptist Dallas Church at least twice.
While Trump won Texas in the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden carried Dallas County and the other large, metropolitan centers in the state. Still, a large number of North Texans have been arrested and charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. At least 19 people from the suburbs of Dallas have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, one of the largest groups involved in the event from any state.