On his first day in office as the President of the US, Donald Trump visited the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) headquarters where he lashed out at the media for downplaying the turnout of people at his inauguration by focusing on the empty spots of the National Mall in Washington DC.
Insisting that his inauguration saw a turnout of 1.5 million people, Trump told the CIA staff members: "I made a speech. I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people. They showed a field where there were practically nobody standing there. And they said, Donald Trump did not draw well."
The 45th president of the US added that one network put the turnout numbers at 250,000. "Now, that's not bad. But it's a lie," Trump said insisting that there were crowds stretching from the steps of the Capitol, where he took his oath and gave his speech, to 20 blocks back to the Washington Monument.
Authorities did not provide the official count of the people who attended the inauguration but it was evident from the TV footage that the turnout was quite low as compared to former president Barack Obama's second inauguration in 2013. Based on the aerial photos, the crowd did not stretch till the Washington Monument.
"So we caught them and we caught them in a beauty and I think they're going to pay a big price... You saw that. Packed. I get up this morning, I turn on one of the networks, and they show an empty field. I'm like, wait a minute," Trump told the staff on his first visit to the CIA headquarters, the same agency he had criticised and rejected publicly and also compared to the Nazis in the past following reports that Russia helped him win the presidential elections. He accused the media of creating a rift between him and the intelligence agency and called journalists "among the most dishonest human beings on earth."
"I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth, and they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community. The reason you're the No. 1 stop is, it is exactly the opposite. I love you, I respect you, there's nobody I respect more," President Trump told the CIA staff.
Later, in the day, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer also accused the media of falsely reporting that there was low attendance at Trump's inauguration ceremony than those in the previous years. Spicer claimed the photographs were "intentionally framed to minimise support".
Spicer said that Trump had drawn "the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration," a statement proved false by the photographs of the ceremony. He also called the media "irresponsible" adding that attempts to downplay the significance of the inauguration were "shameful and wrong."
Spicer, who did not take any questions from the media, showed a photograph that, according to him, reflected the turnout at the inauguration accurately. The picture had been taken from behind the podium looking out at the crowds, the AFP reported.
