As inaugurations go, President Trump’s wasn’t the smallest in history, but as Michelle Visage has pointed out it certainly was no match for President Obama’s in 2009.
CREDIT: Whitehouse PhotographerHundreds of millions tuned in to watch the inauguration of Donald Trump, however, the turn out to watch the event live in Washington DC was well below that of Obama’s 2009 swearing in. Michelle Visage was quick to share a shocking image showing the poor turn out, where huge areas of land outside the Capitol Building in Washington DC stand empty.
In 2009 Obama’s inauguration set a new record for attendees, although there is no official count. It was considered that over 1.8 million people turned up to watch the event. Donald Trump was unable to match the 44th President’s numbers or approval rating at the time of their respective inaugurations. Obama’s was 68 per cent. Trump’s is 37 per cent.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPgZuFfgtf2/?taken-by=michellevisage&hl=en
According to Washington DC’s own transport system passenger numbers were well down.
Metro Ridership: As of 11am, 193k trips taken so far today. (11am 1/20/13 = 317k, 11am 1/20/09 = 513k, 11am 1/20/05 = 197k) #wmata
— Metro Forward (@wmata) January 20, 2017
They tweeted that as of 11 AM on Trump’s inauguration 193,000 trips had been made compared with 513,000 on Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Even Obama’s second term swearing in had over 317,000 trips made.
Within hours of Trump becoming the 45th President, there was panic amongst some in the American LGBT community as the Whitehouse’s official website scrubbed it’s LGBT page, leaving users with just an empty white screen.
