Trump falsely compares his crowd size to MLK’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech on same real estate. See how they actually compare.

When he became president on January 20, 2017, Donald Trump wrongfully claimed that his inauguration crowd size exceeded that of former President Barack Obama. On his first full day as the new White House press secretary, Sean Spicer immediately lost all credibility with the press corps when he not only repeated Trump’s assertions but also defended them.

This year, as a Republican presidential candidate, Trump continues exaggerating crowds.

At a recent press conference held at Mar-a-Largo, former President Donald J. Trump said, “Nobody has spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people.”

“But when you look at the exact same picture,” Trump continued, “and everything is the same – because it was the fountains, the whole thing all the way back to go from Lincoln to Washington – and you look at it, and you look at the picture of my crowd … we actually had more people.”

On August 28, 1963, the National Park Service estimated that 250,000 Americans gathered on the National Mall to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech.

The service estimates that 53,000 joined Trump on the “same real estate” on January 6, 2021, 15 days before Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States.

However, that’s just the first of many factual differences between the two monumental dates in American history, 58 years apart.  

In August 1963, when 250,000 Americans heeded the calls of Dr. King and other civil rights leaders, they did so to protest an end to segregation, employment discrimination, and other discriminatory practices in civil rights. In addition, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom sought to establish voting rights, fair wages, and economic justice.

By contrast, the 53,000 Trump supporters who gathered in January 2021 were protesting the 2020 presidential election results. They felt –, still feel – that President Biden stole the election.

Trump Inauguration Image by National Park Service EarthCam

It did not matter that President Biden defeated Trump 306-232  in the Electoral College and had a four-point margin in the popular vote. Nor did the fact that over 50 courts – many presided over by judges nominated to the bench by Trump – ruled that the November 2020 election was fair.

In addition, after the March on Washington, there were no arrests; the demonstration was peaceful, and everyone departed the nation’s capital without any incidents.

In contrast, many on January 6 carried weapons such as knives, guns, police batons, stun guns, fire extinguishers, flag poles, tasers, ax handles, hockey sticks, metal fences, and pepper spray.

On explicit orders from Trump, they marched up Pennsylvania Avenue and stormed the U.S. Capitol, where Congress was gathered to fulfill its constitutional mandate and certify the 2020 election results.

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 1,265 people from nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia with criminal misconduct. As of January 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. released numbers showing that another 460 people had secured incarceration sentences.

Moreover, the 1963 march sowed the seeds for the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

January 6, 2021, resulted in 140 police officers being seriously injured, with five giving their lives. Several Trump supporters also died that day.

Finally, what folks most remember about the March on Washington are Dr. King’s closing words, “Free at last, free at last. Thank God, Almighty, I am free at last.”

Trump’s words on January 6, 2021, stand out: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” and “We are going to the Capitol.”

Can you see the differences between the gatherings on the National Mall on August 28, 1963, and January 6, 2021?

#Trump #MLK #CrowdSizeComparison

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