Donald Trump started his first term as President of the United States on the defensive after millions of protesters took to the streets on the weekend of his inauguration. Demonstrations occurred in London, New York, Berlin and Hong Kong.
Largest demonstrations in over 50 years
Angered by the largest demonstrations in the U.S. since the 1960s when anti-Vietnam protesters took to the streets, Trump and his cabinet spent the weekend inflating the number of people in attendance at his inauguration.
Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary, declared that the media had 'deliberately reported inaccurate attendance figures,' stating that 'we're going to hold the press accountable for their mis-reporting of figures'.
Further, Spicer claimed: 'On Friday, we witnessed the largest audience at a presidential inauguration in history. We will not stand for the media's continued attempts to dampen the enthusiasm for President Trump'.
'Alternative facts'
In an interview with NBC, Kellyanne Conway claimed that Sean Spicer had stated 'alternative facts'-a comment that has sparked a meme on Twitter and Reddit. 'You're saying that our figures are wrong, we gave alternative facts to your figures. I don't think that there is a way to quantify large crowd numbers'.
The Washington Transport Service reported that over one million trips were made on Saturday-the day of the Women's March- but only 520,000 trips were made on Friday-the day of Trump's inauguration.
Conway's comments came during the Women's March. Trump faces a lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, who alleges that the President assaulted her during filming of 'The Apprentice'.
Admittedly, the attendance for Trump's inauguration is a trivial matter. However, Trump and his team's willingness to distort reality mere hours into his term sets a concerning precedent.
'If Trump is butting heads with the media over something as minor as crowd size, just wait until the media pick over employment figures, healthcare issues, the economy and budgets,' Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, said. Last week, Trump labelled an unverified dossier of leaked to the media as "Fake News".
Already, Trump is under fire.
A petition containing over 200,000 signatures is demanding that Trump declares his personal tax return. Trump didn't release his tax declaration throughout the election campaign, a decision that goes against convention. Conway closed her interview with NBC by stating that 'Trump will not be releasing his tax returns'.