Former Obama adviser David Axelrod questioned whether Donald Trump has actually transitioned from being a candidate into the United States’ chief executive after Trump spoke at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Virginia on Saturday, using the platform to criticize the media’s reporting on his inauguration.
“Can @realDonaldTrump transition to role of POTUS & Comm in Chief?” Axelrod asked on Twitter. “Thin-skinned rant on crowd size in talk at CIA was unbelievably tone deaf,” he added.
Can @realDonaldTrump transition to role of POTUS & Comm in Chief? Thin-skinned rant on crowd size in talk at CIA was unbelievably tone deaf.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) January 22, 2017
One day after Inauguration Day, Trump paid a visit to 300 CIA officials and assured them he supports their work, despite a campaign and transition process where Trump condemned the U.S. intelligence agency after it released a report concluding that the Russians meddled in the presidential election in his favor against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“I am with you 1,000 percent,” Trump said.
Trump went on to not only slam the media for perpetuating what he called a “feud” between him and the intelligence community, but he also chastised journalists for reporting that his inauguration didn’t draw nearly the same size crowds as his predecessor, Barack Obama.
“I turn on, by mistake, I get this network, and it showed an empty field,” Trump said. “And it said we drew 250,000 people. Now, that’s not bad. But it’s a lie. We had 250,000 people literally around in the little ball that we constructed, that was 250,000 people. The rest of the 20-block area, all the way back to the Washington Monument, it was packed. So we caught them and we caught them in a beauty and I think they’re going to pay a big price.”
Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, later doubled down on the comments, saying Trump’s inauguration drew “the largest crowd ever” — an assertion that many journalists have rejected and reported as false.
