Trump Spent His First Days as President Freaking Out Over Mean Tweets
This weekend, many of us were marching to protest the dawn of Donald Trump’s presidency. Or we were at least inwardly freaking out about it.
Our new President, though, was all up in his feels — and his Twitter mentions.
And just like your immature 13-year-old cousin would, he allowed mean tweets to dominate his entire weekend.
Instead of getting to work on bringing jobs back to America like he’s promised, Trump spent the weekend throwing temper tantrums, lying to the public about crowd sizes, and having his staff lie to the public about crowd sizes. And according to the New York Times’ sources, this all stemmed from some nasty tweets Trump saw right after the inauguration, mocking the tiny crowds at his inauguration.
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He was mostly pissed off about photos on Twitter that showed his inaugural crowds next to a photo of Obama’s crowds. You might have seen them, but here’s a refresher: Trump’s audience looked tiny compared to Obama’s.
trump bb, your engagement ratio is off pic.twitter.com/jSOcPQ7gos
— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) January 22, 2017
Even our reporters on the ground confirmed DC was weirdly empty and quiet the day of the inauguration.
Now, most normal adults would shrug this off. The presidency is not a popularity contest, as this election sadly showed us.
But Trump just couldn’t get over it. He not only mentioned crowd size when he spoke at the inaugural balls on Friday night, but also when speaking to the CIA on Saturday.
He was supposed to be repairing his shaky relationship with the intelligence community at the CIA meeting. But instead, his ego got the best of him and he whined about crowd sizes. He blamed his favorite scapegoat, the media, for underreporting the crowds. But the photos don’t lie, and crowd scientists now estimate there were only 160,000 people present at Trump’s inauguration on Friday. For comparison’s sake, they’re saying at least 470,000 people attended the Women’s March on Saturday.
Oh, and Obama’s first inauguration drew 1.8 million.
These are estimates that experts have arrived at after monitoring video feeds and comparing transit numbers. But Donald Trump can’t take it.
From the New York Times:
Mr. Trump grew increasingly angry on Inauguration Day after reading a series of Twitter messages pointing out that the size of his inaugural crowd did not rival that of Mr. Obama’s in 2009. […] When he awoke on Saturday morning, after his first night in the Executive Mansion, the glow was gone, several people close to him said, and the new president was filled anew with a sense of injury.
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Not only did he bring up the crowd sizes at his CIA talk, despite this having absolutely nothing to do with the CIA. He also had the White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, hold a press conference where he, too, lied about the size of the crowds. Spicer said the inauguration drew “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” which is untrue. He also admitted there were no concrete numbers at the time.
This led people to tweet their own lies with the hashtag #SpicerFacts.
“chokers are still in. period.” #SpicerFacts pic.twitter.com/dwNQV6sZs2
— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) January 22, 2017
As if Trump’s hissy fits and Spicer’s untruthful press conference weren’t enough, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway then went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and said Spicer wasn’t lying, he was merely presenting “alternative facts,” which sparked a whole new trending topic.
from now on I’m telling bae what he found in my phone was just #alternativefacts pic.twitter.com/l8zQuQztAN
— Galore (@TheGaloreMag) January 22, 2017
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Some people have argued that Trump focuses on these tiny slights to distract us from the bigger issues and the actual changes taking place behind closed doors. I think that’s giving him way too much credit. Really, he’s just a giant baby who can’t handle the tiniest bit of criticism and is constantly looking for a scapegoat, whether that takes the form of immigrants, the media or intelligence agencies.
But the fact remains that we need to focus more on policy than on whatever insignificant issue Trump has decided to blow up in order to feed his own need for attention. Still, it’s good to know tweets critiquing Trump are clearly getting under his skin. Let’s keep them coming, in addition to taking to the streets and calling our legislators.
