What did Donald Trump do today?

He said reporters should be arrested for noticing that he couldn't quite fill an Ohio high school gym with supporters.

In a highly emotional social media post today, Trump (or someone posting on his behalf) called for reporters to be arrested for saying that he had failed to fill a high school gym in a recent campaign stop in Ohio. In the post, Trump misleadingly implied the high school gym was an "arena," and that it held "50,000" people. 

The Ohio Arena was already full to the brim — And yet these people were still trying to get in. The New York Times said, "There were empty seats" when, in fact, there were none, and thousands of people had to be turned away. The New York Times, and many other Artificial Media Outlets, should be arrested for their dishonesty and disservice to our Country. When Bernie Sanders has 500 to 1,000 people, they make it sound like it's the biggest event that ever took place. When PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP has 50,000 people, they make it sound like nobody showed up! President DONALD J. TRUMP 

But the reporting was correct. The Vandalia, Ohio facility is pretty large for a gym, seating about 4,500 people at maximum capacity, and it was well over half-full—but it was not at maximum capacity, even while Trump was speaking. News photos and video show the upper sections only partially filled. 

Trump is famously sensitive about crowd sizes. He launched his campaign with actors who'd been paid $50 to play supporters filling out the small room he announced in. He also routinely falsely accuses counter-protests, which can be enormous, of being full of paid actors.

That obsession has continued ever since. His top priority on his first day in office in 2017 was to send his press secretary out to angrily shout a prepared—and false—statement about his lackluster inaugural crowds. (Trump moved his second inaugural indoors at the last minute after hotel booking rates for the weekend stayed low, suggesting few attendees.) This past summer, he became obsessed with the fact that his "Great American State Fair" was practically deserted for weeks on end. And in between, he's been caught angrily lying about crowd sizes, and reporting on them, any number of times.

It's not illegal to report on a president's crowd size, much less to do so accurately.

In related news, after four days on the campaign trail (and one in which he recuperated at the White House), Trump today began walking back his initial promise to visit every swing state before the midterms. That came as incumbent Texas governor Greg Abbott announced that he would not appear with Trump, citing (previously unmentioned) prior engagements.

Why does this matter?

• Throwing people in jail for suggesting that the leader is not universally beloved what tinpot dictators do.   

• If Trump thought he could get 50,000 people to show up for a rally he wouldn't have booked a high school gym.