US President Donald Trump has accused the media of being dishonest over the number of people who attended his inauguration.
This was after photographs that were published appeared to show more people attended his predecessor Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer said it had been “the largest audience to ever see an inauguration” even though figures he cited add up to less than 750,000 people.
Mr Spicer also said that plastic sheets had been used for the first time to cover the grass which “had the effect of highlighting areas people were not standing whereas in years past the grass eliminated this visual”. In fact, the grass was also covered in 2013.
Officials from the District of Columbia have said that 1.8m people attended Mr Obama’s 2009 inauguration and close to 1m showed up for his second in 2013.
The US National Park Service for decades provided official crowd estimates for gatherings on the National Mall but had to stop after organizers of the Million Man March protest about rights for black people in 1995 threatened a lawsuit.
President Trump said “it looked like a million and a half people” there on Friday – with crowd extending all the way back to the Washington Monument. He did not provide evidence.
His press secretary outlined figures amounting to 720,000 people in the Mall.
He also said that the number of people taking Washington’s subway system on the day had been higher than during Mr Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.
In fact, there were 782,000 tickets that year, but 571,000 this year, the Washington-area transit authority says.
George W Bush drew some 400,000 in 2005, 300,000 in 2001; Bill Clinton had 800,000 in 1993 then 250,000 in 1997.
