https://twitter.com/Brittferrari/status/822514223079161861
Donald Trump is now our instantly-great and benevolent Cheetos Commander In Chief. Last night he boasted about the great and powerful crowds that came to his 3 Doors Down (lol) + Toby Keith concert drew at the Lincoln Memorial. In fact, he said “I don’t know if this has ever been done before.” In fact, it has! …History!
He said of the concert at the Lincoln Memorial: “I don’t know if this has ever been done before.”
In fact, several presidents have held pre-inauguration concerts there, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Obama’s 2009 celebration featured Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen and U2 and drew more than 400,000 people.
Looks like the National Park Service, which runs the National Mall, confirmed:
Ice cold. pic.twitter.com/rVLQyPKeSZ
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 20, 2017
Today for his inauguration, crowds on the National Mall were far fewer than the draw for Obama’s previous two inaugurations. Proof is in the visuals above, alongside this Vox-plainer with some quick research + math:
Federal and local agencies have estimated that anywhere from 700,000 to 900,000 people will be in Washington, DC, today for Trump’s inauguration. That’s roughly half the number of people who attended Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
It’s also less than the turnout for Obama’s 2013 inauguration, which drew 1 million people.
But experts caution it will be weeks before we know the final count; in the meantime, take all estimates with a grain of salt.
Allison Puccioni, an imagery analyst, told me she helped estimate the number of people in attendance at Obama’s inauguration in 2009. To measure the density of people, she used satellite imagery, making a 90-square grid area of the Capitol and National Mall.
A few days later, the DC government, along with several federal agencies and media organizations, released official estimates that weren’t too far off from Puccioni’s 1.8 million using ticket information from turnstiles and other sources for their count.
More:
And hey, why not a joke?
https://twitter.com/markondefense/status/822447853838757889