Donald Trump's re-election team scrapped online registrations for campaign rally after claims that low attendance at the US president's previous event was driven by TikTok users falsely signing up for tickets.
Officials claimed that a million people signed up ahead of the president's Tulsa rally last week, only for around 6,000 people to attend in a 19,000-capacity arena.
The Trump campaign later admitted that around 300,000 registrations were fake, Politico reported, following a huge campaign by TikTok users and K-pop fans to buy tickets and not use them.
And ahead of the Students for Trump convention on Tuesday, organisers closed the event's online registration form.
A statement on the organisation's website read: "The registration form has closed, but we would still love to see you tomorrow. If you would like to attend the event and see President Trump, please come to the venue."
The Trump campaign has denied that the low attendance at the Tulsa event was related to the TikTok campaign.
And the president's campaign manager Brad Parscale hit out at Mr Trump's critics in a statement.
He said: "Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don't know what they're talking about or how our rallies work," Parscale wrote.
"Reporters who wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop fans - without contacting the campaign for comment - behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade."
Students for Trump has been contacted for comment.
At the Arizona event Mr Trump once again used the terms "kung flu" and "Chinese flu" to refer to the coronavirus, prompting further accusations of racism.
He said: "I said the other night, there's never been anything where they have so many names.
"I could give you 19 or 20 names for that right? It's got all different names. Wuhan. Wuhan is catching on. Coronavirus, right? Kung flu, yeah?"
The president went on: "Kung flu. Covid-19. Covid. I said what's the nineteen? Covid-19.
"Some people can't explain what that 19? Covid-19, I said, that's an odd name. I could give you many, many names.
"Some people call it the Chinese flu. The China flu, right? They call it the China – as opposed to China. The China. I've never seen anything like it."
While Trump spoke police fired pepper spray to disperse protesters outside the church, who law enforcement said had gathered unlawfully.
