A general view of President Trump’s inauguration January 20, 2017; Mike Coppola/Getty Images(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — A new report claims President Trump told the head of the National Park Service to produce photos to support his claim that the crowd attending his inauguration was larger than it actually was.
The Washington Post, citing unnamed people familiar with the issue, reports acting National Park Service Director Michael T. Reynolds, who’s worked for the agency some 30 years, was told to call President Trump at the White House the Saturday after the Friday, January 20 inauguration. President Trump is said to have personally asked Reynolds to produce additional photos that might prove the media was deliberately lying about the actual size of the inauguration crowd, to make it appear smaller than Trump believes it was.
Mr. Trump also is said to have expressed anger over a National Park Service retweet of an aerial photo that compared the sizes of President Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural crowd, and President Trump’s, the latter of which appeared considerably smaller. The National Park Service tweeted an apology the morning of January 21 for the “mistaken” retweet, but a Park Service official told ABC News Thursday night that Reynolds “did not receive any Twitter guidance” from the president during the call.
Reynolds forwarded additional aerial photos of the inauguration to the White House, reports the Washington Post. National Park Service Spokesman Thomas Crosson confirmed to ABC News that the telephone call took place, but would not comment on its content. Several White House officials contacted by ABC News have not responded to a request for comment.
A White House spokesperson tells the Washington Post the call merely showed President Trump is “accessible and constantly in touch.”
President Trump has repeatedly insisted that the crowd at his inauguration was far larger that evidence shows, claiming well over a million people. Estimates are that it was about a third the size of Obama’s 2009 crowd, which was generally estimated to be a record 1.8 million people.
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