NEW YORK: Early on Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to lash out at the millions of protesters worldwide who came out for the Women’s March on Washington — before sending a much more conciliatory tweet later in the morning, according to Politico newspaper.

“Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn’t these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly,” Trump tweeted at 7:47am on Sunday

Almost two hours later, he followed up with a message that carried a significantly different tone. “Peaceful protests are a hallmark of our democracy. Even if I don’t always agree, I recognise the rights of people to express their views.”

But much of the attention remained over the size of Trump’s inaugural crowd that truly paled in comparison to that of his predecessors. Aerial images and Metro ridership statistics indicate that significantly few people attended Trump’s inauguration on Friday, compared to former president Barack Obama’s ceremony in 2009, news media said.

Hitting the Sunday morning shows, Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway both sought to downplay the fracas while highlighting what she called the president’s “unfair” treatment. “I don’t think ultimately presidents are judged by crowd sizes at their inauguration. I think they’re judged by their accomplishments,” Conway said on NBC’s Meet the Press, adding, “I think it is a symbol of unfair and incomplete treatment that this president often receives.”

Published in Dawn January 23rd, 2017