I’m more inclined to believe her rallies have actual attendees lured there by free concerts, or other celebrity appearances. And, I think they are employing very good staging practices to make the crowds look larger than they really are.

If you look at the venues so far they are intentionally small so they can fill them to capacity. They also seem to be avoiding venues where people can spread out horizontally because that would reveal the crowds are relatively small. Instead they stack people in long narrow spaces because that depth gives the illusion of large crowds.

My question is this:

Are there no credible reporters estimating crowd size? Are there no citizen journalists covering the venue to report on gimmicks like concerts, estimate crowd size, and interview attendees?