Rick Snider

Will Trump’s inaugural crowd set a record?

Will Donald Trump’s inaugural crowd be the largest ever for a Republican president?

Of 23 past inaugural crowds I could find, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and George W. Bush in 1993 were the biggest by a Republican president at 500,000. Ironically, Reagan’s second inauguration was forced inside by frigid weather and the parade cancelled. Bush wasn’t re-elected.

Democrat Barack Obama’s 1.8 million in 2009 is the all-time leader. Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1.2 million in 1965 was more than double John F. Kennedy’s 500,000 in 1961. Obama’s second inaugural in 2013 drew 1 million while Bill Clinton’s 800,000 in 1993.

Kennedy ushered in the modern era of large inaugurations. Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural in 1861 drew only 30,000. But considering the city’s population was 20,000, that’s pretty impressive.

Here are crowd counts based on newspaper reports.

2009: Barack Obama 1,800,000
1965: Lyndon B. Johnson 1,200,000
2013: Barack Obama 1,000,000
1993: Bill Clinton 800,000
1961: John F. Kennedy 500,000
1981: Ronald Reagan 500,000
2001: George W. Bush 500,000
2005: George W. Bush 400,000
1977: Jimmy Carter: 350,000
1973: Richard Nixon 300,000
1989: George Bush 300,000
1997: Bill Clinton 250,000
1905: Teddy Roosevelt 200,000
1953: Dwight D. Eisenhower 200,000
1885: Grover Cleveland 150,000
1857: James Buchanon 150,000
1933: Franklin Delano Roosevelt 100,000
1853: Franklin Pierce 70,000
1841:William Henry Harrison 50,000
1929: Herbert Hoover 50,000
1829: Andrew Jackson 30,000
1861: Abraham Lincoln 30,000
1817: James Monroe 8,000
1873: Ulysses S. Grant, 2,000
1945: Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1,800 (Private ceremony)
1985: Ronald Reagan 1,000 (Indoors)

Discover more from Rick Snider's Washington

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.