James McAvoy | Trump's Shrinking Crowds, GOP Backlash Over LA & San Diego Comments, El-Sayed's Dare: A Closer Look

SPEAKER_1 (0:30)

On today's show, Seth chats with actor James McAvoy. But first, A Closer Look.

Seth Meyers (0:41)

Donald Trump is making life more difficult for Republicans in the midterms as he hits the campaign trail in deep red states and faces backlash for his comments about LA and San Diego. For more on this, it's time for A Closer Look. Trump has been holding rallies in solid red states like Nebraska and Oklahoma, and say what you will about the polls, but he's been very encouraged by the crowds at his rallies.

Donald Trump (1:05)

Who the hell fills up an arena like this for a midterm? First of all, I wouldn't say filling up an arena is proof you should be president.

Seth Meyers (1:13)

If anything, it proves you should be a monster truck, and you would make a great monster truck. You're loud, you steamroll whatever's in front of you, and you are I often make... a face that looks like your radiator overheated.

But, hey, say what you want about Trump. He can draw a crowd. I'm sure every seat in that arena was filled, and he wouldn't be immediately fact-checked by the camera cutting to the upper deck.

Donald Trump (1:35)

Who the hell fills up an arena like this for a midterm? For a midterm.

And what they do is, in the upper rows, you'll see it. They sort of migrate downward, and they all stay here by the time. We max out everything that you've ever said. There's never been anything like it.

Seth Meyers (2:01)

I'm sorry, there's never been anything like totally average?

We can see the empty seats, and it's fine. It's still a decent crowd, but don't oversell it. I can't say there's never been anything like it because there has. It's, in fact, the most like-an-arena audience I've ever seen. And you can tell even Trump realized he was overselling it when he saw the empty seats and came up with this weird explanation.

Donald Trump (2:26)

And what they do is, in the upper rows, you'll see it, they sort of migrate downward, and they all stay here by the time we max out everything.

Seth Meyers (2:36)

Sure, but the upper deck only comes down when there are empty seats closer to the stage. You can't move down if the arena is full. You would never say to a friend of the upper deck, hey, check it out. Should we go down there and sit in their laps?

And this wasn't the first time Trump's encountered a smaller crowd than he expected. Last week, he was in deep red Alabama and had the same problem.

SPEAKER_5 (2:58)

Here was the scene from inside the venue at Trump's big Alabama rally tonight. Trump couldn't even fill half the seats in the arena. For context here, that venue holds 10,000 people.

And when Trump kicked off his presidential campaign in 2015, he was able to fill an arena three times that size in the exact same city.

Seth Meyers (3:20)

Now you might say, hey, I bet every president starts drawing smaller crowds for their rallies the longer their president, but the fact is, we don't really know because most presidents stop doing f***ing rallies. They don't have time because they're too busy being president. You should try it. By the way, one of the reasons, one of the reasons you probably had more people willing to drive out and see you in 2015 was because the average gas price was $2.43 that year. Thanks, Obama. Oh, wait, sorry. Sorry. I said that wrong. Thanks, Obama. Also, you've been doing the same material for 10 years straight and no wonder people are bailing. I mean, who wants to see that? Everyone's very familiar with your riff on how toilets don't flush or windmills kill birds, or most people don't know there's a B in the word dumb. I mean, dude's got to get some new material. Even Bob Dylan doesn't just play his greatest hits. And Dylan is an apt comparison because he's the only person who's harder to understand than Trump. Like, seriously, we've all heard Trump say stuff like this.

You can easily imagine those words coming out of Bob Dylan's mouth.

SPEAKER_6 (4:28)

I say to my papi, I say to my mom, Saudi Arabia, Russia, we all need them, huh?

Seth Meyers (4:47)

My voice was way closer to Bob Dylan's than that harmonica was to the way he plays harmonica. I was like, what I am doing is offensive to this legend, and then you guys made it a hundred times worse.

SPEAKER_6 (5:01)

Blowing in the wind.

SPEAKER_7 (5:03)

Wee-hoo, hee-hoo.

Seth Meyers (5:06)

Trump's been spending his time mostly in states like Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, because Republicans in close races don't want him around. New York Republican Mike Lawler, one of the most vulnerable GOP incumbents in Congress, was very blunt when asked if he'd like Trump to come to his district, a district that went for Kamala Harris in 2024