McLEAN, VA -- While hundreds of thousands of people marched against him Saturday across the nation, President Donald Trump disputed turnout figures at his inauguration Friday, saying a million or a million and a half people filled the National Mall.

Trump, in remarks made at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., disputed the attendance numbers at his inauguration, as media reports estimated that as many as 250,000 people may have attended Friday at the National Mall, a figure the new president said "was a lie." Trump made his remarks about crowd estimates on a day that saw hundreds of thousands protest his presidency around the country and around the world.



Due to the difficulty in accurately assessing crowd estimates for large events, most notably following 1996's Million Man March, the National Park Service no longer makes it a practice to provide crowd estimates for permitted events. "While we make internal estimates for staffing, security and emergency response purposes, it is left to the discretion of event organizers to make a determination of the event attendance," a spokesman said.

Although it's hard to confirm numbers, CNN said they confirmed Washington Post numbers from Metro on full inaugural day ridership:

Trump: 570,500

Obama 2009: 1.1 million

Obama 2013: 782,000 Later Saturday afternoon, after Trump's visit to the CIA, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters in a tense televised White House briefing that "this was the largest audience period" for any presidential inauguration. Trump and Spicer did not address Saturday's marches across the country.

At the inauguration Friday, Trump said: "...we had a massive field of people, and they [the media] show an empty field," Trump complained. "When I looked, it looked like a million, a million and a half people. And they [the media] showed a field where there were hardly any people."



"We caught them [the media] in a beauty," he said.



Trump said he came to CIA headquarters Saturday in Langley, Va., "as his number one stop" in part to tamp down any rumors that he was having a feud with the agency, which he said was reported by the media. about that...Those Intelligence chiefs made a mistake here, & when people make mistakes, they should APOLOGIZE." Media should also apologize

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017 "They [the media] are among the most dishonest people on earth," he said. "They made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community." Trump also attended a prayer service Saturday with his family at Washington National Cathedral.

