The Size of the Crowd

With Donald Trump officially taking the oath of office to become the United States' 45th president, we are living in the age of alternative facts. Whether it's the inauguration crowd size, the cause of global warming, the benefits of nutritious school lunches and consumer protection laws, the necessity of civil rights laws, or the lack of accountability among charter schools, the Trump administration has been aggressive in challenging not just the interpretation, but the facts themselves.

In some cases, such as the size of the inauguration crowd, it doesn't seem to matter whose was larger. Yet the Trump administration has been just as adamant about this issue as any other. Why?

It's been suggested that Trump wanted to take attention from the record-setting protests on Saturday. It's been hypothesized that Trump's ultimate goal is to discredit the media. But will his strategy backfire?

The Trump presidency has just begun, and it's already as surreal as you'd expect from a washed-up reality TV host.