Donald Trump Holds Inauguration Crowd In The Palm Of His Tiny Hand

Supporters of Donald Trump – apparently tethered to the internet, or not wanting to stray too far from the safeties and the sureties of their faded rural homes – swiftly declared it his first miracle. But for the embittered, fraudulent and falsifying, mainstream, multicultural, liberal cuckold press, the reason the incoming president managed to fit the entirety of his inauguration crowd into the palm of his tiny hand had nothing to do with greatness or grandiosity, patriotism, protectionism, or patriarchal control. It was simply that the crowd’s number was so small.

Former presidents from both sides of the aisle felt themselves obliged to attend the inaugural ceremony, including the outgoing Barack Obama, and defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton accompanied by her husband Bill. George Bush Jr. took a poncho and the wet weather as more than ample opportunity to play an impeccable fool.

The hilarity extended through the ceremony’s endless Bible references, enough to bring the supposedly secular nation to its knees. And Trump’s inaugural address abounded in vacuity, as he painted a murky picture of ‘American carnage’ while unironically blaming the ‘establishment’ for failing to share their wealth.

Vacillating between phony graciousness and virulent hatred, attempting to reach a crescendo by means of the message ‘America first’, the stupidest juxtaposition of all came when he declared, ‘When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity”‘.

But beyond the gathered politicians and hangers-on, before Trump clenched his withered hand and balled them up inside his fist, he looked out over a crowd much nearer than the eye could see. The Washington Metro prefigured the fallout over the pitiful turnout when they noted just 193,000 trips taken in the capital by 11 am on inauguration day morning, compared to 513,000 for Barack Obama in 2009 and 317,000 in 2013.

The Metro was later forced to clarify that over the full course of the day, 570,557 trips were taken, in contrast to the 782,000 for Obama’s second inaugural in 2013. And it was Donald Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, who was doing the forcing, as he cited the former figure in defence of Trump in what amounted to an astonishing, brazenly dishonest, red-faced tirade.

Spicer – just hours after Trump spoke at CIA headquarters depicting a ‘running war with the media’ – took the occasion of his first press briefing to accuse journalists of attempting to ‘minimise the enormous support’ shown for Trump’s inauguration. He blamed grass coverings, fences, and metal detectors and openly contradicted himself, stating of the size of the crowd that ‘No one had numbers because the National Park Service, which controls the National Mall, does not put any out’, before anyway claiming that Trump had attracted ‘the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe’.

The evidence suggested otherwise. Photographs and videos showing the National Mall from the Washington Monument indicated a sparse crowd for Trump’s inauguration compared to Obama’s in 2009, which District of Columbia officials have previously stated drew a record 1.8 million. Trump told the CIA that ‘it looked like a million and a half people’ on Friday from his vantage point, but more realistic estimates have the turnout at between 300,000-600,000, most of whom were probably hotel partners and covert Russians.

Whatever the true number, it was undoubtedly far less than the millions who protested across the United States and genuinely around the globe on Saturday, in defiance of Trump and with a focus on women’s rights. 500,000 marched in the capital alone, with an estimated 750,000 in Los Angeles and 400,000 in New York, amid more than 600 rallies worldwide.

If his vast following was hiding in the bushes, or having uprooted the tarpaulin was busy assimilating with the grass, perhaps that explains Trump’s shoddy television showing. For according to Nielsen, his inauguration drew 30.6 million viewers, only enough to place him fifth in the all-time list. B-movie star Ronald Reagan attained 41.8 million viewers in 1982, Barack Obama 37.7 million in 2009, and Trump was also bettered by Jimmy Carter (34.1 million in 1977) and Richard Nixon 1973 (33 million in 1973).

In response to Spicer’s angry contrivances and Trump calling journalists ‘among the most dishonest human beings on earth’, prominent news outlets and former intelligence officials came together in their condemnation. The New York Times decried Spicer’s ‘false claims’, The Washington Post gave his briefing a rating of ‘Four Pinocchios’, and Nick Shapiro, the former CIA director John O. Brennan’s chief of staff, said that Brennan was ‘saddened and angered’ by Trump’s ‘despicable display of self-aggrandisement’.