It's not a well-kept secret that Trump staffers plan these rallies fairly regularly to feed the massive, overweening neediness and ego of Donald Trump and to keep him distracted from the fits he regularly throws as he feels the Mueller investigation closing in on him.

This is the part of being president that he loves: preening and showboating. Which makes the mainstream media's insistence on covering them live so much more disingenuous. There is literally nothing newsworthy about them. They are basically the equivalent of shaking your keys to distract a toddler having a tantrum.

But it can be disconcerting to see these Trump cultists on TV, screaming and angry. So angry. For crying out loud, they control all branches of government and they're still screaming to take back the country. From whom?

What if I told you that it's all an act?

After having been in and around U.S. politics now for 25+ years and attended 100s of rallies, what we are seeing now is faked. Fake outrage against media. Faked attendance # + always the same level of anger towards media no matter what city. #Followthemoney to craigslist ads. — Alan W. Silberberg (@IdeaGov) August 2, 2018

Search "crowd fillers needed' on Craigslist and google. Tie those ad dates to a week or so ahead of rallies... bang. There it is. Probably in plain sight. Djt rallies being propped up by paid actors being told to scream at media. Not all actors and actresses are beautiful ppl. — Alan W. Silberberg (@IdeaGov) August 2, 2018

I would add, listings for such things would be spread out through multiple terms, and places, like gigs, crowd, rally, extras needed, actors + actresses needed etc... it won't be obvious like "Donald Trump wants to pay you to support him at a Rally." Will be more surreptitious — Alan W. Silberberg (@IdeaGov) August 2, 2018

Lastly on this. I am speaking as former advance aide to a President + Vice President. I personally organized dozens of rallies. We controlled image, crowd, backdrops, cutaway shots. We controlled as much as we could. Paying for crowd fillers known campaign trick, on steroids now. — Alan W. Silberberg (@IdeaGov) August 2, 2018

PS - There are also organized companies that do this, may not use craigslist but own mailing lists. For example: https://t.co/EsfsDWyJcz + https://t.co/FlMklXH8L7 obvious for some investigative reporter to start asking how much these cos get from Trump/Affiliated money groups? — Alan W. Silberberg (@IdeaGov) August 2, 2018

We know that Trump paid $50/pop for supporters to cheer as he came down the gold escalator to announce his candidacy in 2015. What's a little more taxpayer money to keep it up and make him feel like he has a ton of supporters?

It's all stagecraft.