Trump performs his special salute in front of CIA memorial wall

This is actually rather awesome. Awesome in the “huge and terrifying” sense. Despite the fact the entire nation watched Donald Trump speak in front of an audience a fraction of those we’ve seen come out for Barack Obama. Despite every network watching his limo roll past sad, empty bleachers for block after block. Despite the absolute fact that anyone can just flipping look at the relative puniness of his “crowd,” the Trump campaign is going all in on a Big Lie right off the bat.

Organizers for Trump’s inauguration expected 800,00. But what they got was something even smaller. While the National Park Service no longer provides crowd estimates (or tweets, thanks to Donald Trump) the former director of crowd logistics at the 2012 inauguration provided an estimate.

Trump 2017: 250,000 Obama 2013: 1,000,000 Obama 2009: 1,800,000

What happens when reality doesn’t line up with Trump’s fantasy in which he’s the best at everything? Reality has to move.

x Spicer: "This was the largest audience to ever witness an Inauguration, period" — Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) January 21, 2017

Not only was Trump’s attendance a fraction of President Obama’s, even his television numbers were down.

Nearly 31 million people watched President Donald Trump’s inauguration, falling short of the audience that tuned in for Barack Obama eight years ago, according to Nielsen.

Perhaps Spicer knows something about the viewership … in Moscow?