title:  Obama And THREE Other Presidents Dwarf Trump’s Inaugural Audience, And These Numbers PROVE It
text: Trump and his minions act like they re dead certain his inaugural numbers broke records, and that the press is lying about it via deceptively edited photos and numbers that can t possibly exist. Sean Spicer claimed that Trump s inaugural audience was the biggest in history, period, while Trump himself said he could see maybe 1.5 million people out there. Then Spicer tried to spin it to sound like he was talking about all viewers   the live crowds, television audience, and people who streamed it online.Oh, well, when you put it that way, we suppose it s possible Trump s inauguration was the most-watched in history.Or is it?It s not.The actual numbers don t support any version of their insistence that Trump s numbers broke records. The Washington Post did an analysis of inaugural numbers, past and present, and found that Trump doesn t even rank in the top three.In fact, he s in fifth place in modern history when you count the television audience. He s behind Obama in 2009, Nixon in 1973, Carter in 1977 and Reagan in 1981. In fact, Reagan s  81 inauguration at 41.8 million is where the record is, and where it will remain. Trump s 33.5 million total misses that by a hefty factor:Chart via the Washington PostAmazingly enough, Spicer does have one fairly accurate number   the 16.9 million people who he says streamed the inauguration. He s using it in a very deceptive way, though. That number is how many started streaming, but then switched to something else or turned it off entirely. The number of people who started streaming and stayed put was just 2.3 million at the time Trump took his oath of office.He s still behind Reagan and Obama, and also behind Carter s 34.1 million.And he misses Obama s numbers by a whopping 6 million. Obama had over 30 million presumable streaming starts for his inauguration that year. Even if all 30 million turned it off (they didn t), Obama still comes out ahead.The Post report also mentions that Trump s audience is older than Obama s audience was, so it s not nearly as likely that more of his remote viewers streamed it online rather than watched it on TV.It doesn t matter how you slice it; Trump s numbers were nothing special.Featured image by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images