November 14, 2020

Trump Is Going Out Like He Came In: With His Press Secretary Lying About Crowd Size

Alternative facts for a new era.

People identifying themselves as members of Proud Boys join supporters of President Donald Trump at Freedom Plaza, Saturday Nov. 14, 2020, in Washington.Julio Cortez/AP

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It’s no secret that the president cares a lot about size. Nearly four years ago, in his debut as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer falsely claimed crowd sizes at Donald Trump’s inauguration were bigger than pictures suggested, saying images were “intentionally framed” to minimize the “enormous support” for the president. He said that the event drew the “largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period,” a lie which Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway infamously referred to as “alternative facts.”

Not much has changed over the past several years. Spicer may have long since resigned, but he’s been channeled by current press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who said Saturday that pro-Trump crowd sizes at DC’s Million MAGA March surpassed 1 million attendees. “More than one MILLION marchers for President @realDonaldTrump descend on the swamp in support,” McEnany tweeted. “Best base in political history — we LOVE you guys!!!”

But according to reporters, that number is closer to thousands of protesters—which Trump almost certainly realized when he drove through the crowd on his way to play golf. 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

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We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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