Official photos of Donald Trump’s inauguration are finally released and appear to prove his crowds were much smaller than Obama’s
The new President was irked by press reports that his crowds were smaller than his Democratic predecessor's
NEWLY-released photos of Donald Trump's inauguration appear to show the President DID have a much-smaller crowd than his predecessor.
The issue was first noted soon after the ceremony on January 20, but escalated into a row between the administration and the press over the following few days.
But the National Park Service has now released dozens of photographs that appear to counter Trump's claim that up to 1.5 million attended the event at the Capitol and National Mall.
The photos were released in response to news media requests made through the Freedom of Information Act.
The park service also released photos from President Barack Obama's two inaugurations. The photos show the 2009 event far outstripped the number of people who attended Trump's inauguration.
While there are no time stamps, the photos clearly show crowds gathering near the Capitol's West Front stage for the ceremony.
Crowds did not extend to the Washington Monument as Trump later asserted. Large swaths of empty space are visible on the Mall.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer claimed that news media photos of the inauguration were ";intentionally framed in a way...to minimise the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall."
The park service photos are from a variety of angles, both from the air and on the ground.
Spicer said the audience at Trump's inauguration "was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration - period - both in person and around the globe".
The exact size of the crowd at the January 20 swearing-in may never be known. The National Park Service stopped providing crowd estimates in the 1990s.
It is not known how many people watched the ceremony on television and online worldwide.
In the U.S., Nielsen estimates 31 million viewers watched TV coverage, but that's less than Obama's and Ronald Reagan's first inaugurations.
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