Inauguration day crowds for Donald Trump don’t match up to those for Barack Obama or George W Bush
US President Donald Trump took great joy during the election campaign in having high ratings, but it seems that crowd numbers for his inauguration may have been down on those of Barack Obama and George Bush.
Thousands congregated around Washington's central landmarks to hear an inaugural address from Trump that promised to put "America First". However, numbers seem to be measurably lower than those for previous Presidents.
While no estimates are offered by the National Parks Service, who run the National Mall (the strip of lawn between the Capitol building, where Trump’s speech was delivered, and the Washington Monument) the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority offers a proxy.
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It said that 193,000 trips were taken on the metro railways by 11am on Trump’s inauguration day. Meanwhile on Obama’s first inauguration there were over two and a half times more trips at the same point, at 513,000.
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
Meanwhile on George Bush’s second inauguration day in 2005 there were 197,000 trips, compared to 317,000 at Obama’s second event. Popularity of Presidents tends to fall over the course of their first term in office.
Trump starts with the lowest approval numbers of any President in recent times. According to an average of polls by Real Clear Politics, only 41.8 per cent of Americans have a positive view of the new US President.
He previously dismissed the low polling numbers as an example of a “rigged” system which had previously underestimated his own chances of winning the Presidency.
The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2017
While many pollsters predicted the wrong result in the Presidential election, many accurately predicted the popular vote, which saw Presidential campaign rival Hillary Clinton win 3m more votes than Trump across the country.