Some media outlets are claiming that the fanfare of Donald Trump's presidential announcement was made even more grand by actors who were paid to be there.

Angelo Carusone, executive vice president for Media Matters, wrote an article on Medium.com which accused Trump of hiring fake fans. Carusone said his claims were substantiated from several unnamed sources and a now deleted Instagram photo by actor Domenico Del Giacco showing him attending the event with another background actor. The photo was removed after users posted comments asking if Trump was paying actors to be there.



#Trump's presidential announcement audience may have been stuffed with presumably paid actors. http://t.co/89RsX9OXGA pic.twitter.com/e3rYnjEhYV — Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) June 17, 2015

This is not the first time Carusone has messed with the multi-billionaire. Carusone also runs an online campaign called "Dump Trump" and according to the Daily Mail, was once threatened by Trump with a lawsuit after Carusone lobbied Macy's to drop Trump products.

The Hollywood Reporter corroborated Carusone's claim after they obtained an email that was sent on June 12th to background actors working with Extra Mile Casting. The message detailed that they were hiring for an event which was in partnership with Gotham Government Relations and Communications, a New York-Based political consulting group that has worked with Trump in the past. Here is an excerpt from that email, published by The Hollywood Reporter:



According to the email, actors would be working less than three hours for a pay of $50.

Attendees to the presidential announcement heard Trump exclaim to the masses, "Whoa, that is some group of people. Thousands. There's been no crowd like this." Business Insider reported however that they were there and it looked as if there were only a few hundred supporters present to watch Trump speak. A Trump spokeswoman told them the campaign was expecting over 1,000 people and that "there were a lot of people you probably couldn't see" because they were watching in bars and restaurants inside Trump Towers or passing by the televisions on the street.

A Mashable news editor snapped a photo of posters meant to appear homemade that were allegedly passed out to supporters attending the event.

.@realDonaldTrump staffer not too pumped i took pic of "homemade" signs (passed out to people before event) in trash pic.twitter.com/zLL2ETBI79 — Megan Specia (@meganspecia) June 16, 2015

According to The Hollywood Reporter, campaign manager Corey Lewandowski denied that Trump paid anyone to attend the event and said he had never heard of Extra Mile Casting. Lewandowski told MSNBC, "Mr. Trump draws record crowds at almost every venue where he is a featured speaker. The crowds are large, often record setting, and enthusiastic, with consistent standing ovations."

Extra Mile and Gotham GR have not responded to requests for comment from media outlets.