Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern
Inauguration Crowd Lies: The First Day and the War on Truth
Trump demanded his Press Secretary go before the press to insist crowd comparisons showing his inauguration was smaller than Obama's were dishonest — a claim contradicted by photographic evidence, aerial comparisons and Metro ridership figures (the National Park Service does not publish crowd estimates). The next morning Trump personally called the acting National Park Service director to request additional photographs; documents released in 2018 showed a government photographer cropped the new images, at Trump's request, to make the crowd look larger. Counselor Kellyanne Conway defended Spicer by coining the phrase 'alternative facts.' The incident, on the first full day of the administration, set the template for four years of routine government deception.