--- title: Trump Inauguration: Park Service Did Not Alter Crowd Photos description: An investigation found no evidence that the National Park Service altered estimates of the crowd size at President Trump's inauguration canonical: https://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-27T16:21:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:20:12.435Z article:section: Politics og:title: No, The National Park Service Didn't Alter Photos of Trump's Inauguration Crowd og:description: It took months to investigate og:url: https://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f9b79fe9527401/6988b780e20a8710d1a93e92/inauguration-crowds-obama-trump-reuters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3317 og:image:height: 1866 og:image:alt: A Picture and Its Story: Crowd controversy: The making of an Inauguration Day photo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: No, The National Park Service Didn't Alter Photos of Trump's Inauguration Crowd twitter:description: It took months to investigate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f9b79fe9527401/6988b780e20a8710d1a93e92/inauguration-crowds-obama-trump-reuters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No, The National Park Service Didn't Alter Photos of Trump's Inauguration Crowd > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 27, 2017 4:21 PM UTC  A combination of photos taken at the National Mall shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (L) on Jan. 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on Jan. 20, 2009, in Washington, D.C. A combination of photos taken at the National Mall shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (L) on Jan. 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on Jan. 20, 2009, in Washington, D.C. Lucas Jackson (Left) and Stelios Varias (Right)—Reuters  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 27, 2017 4:21 PM UTC National Park Service (NPS) officials didn’t alter estimates of the [crowd size](http://time.com/4693224/trump-inauguration-size-official-photos/) at President Trump’s inauguration, according to the results of a months-long investigation. The [report](https://www.doioig.gov/reports/investigative-report-questionable-actions-allegedly-taken-nps-officials-during-2017), released Monday by the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior, addressed the controversy that consumed the early days of Trump’s presidency. The investigation began in February, when the Inspector General received a complaint alleging that a National Mall and Memorial Parks official had instructed NPS employees to alter records of crowd-size estimates. The agency also investigated claims that NPS public affairs employees had released unauthorized information to the press about a phone call between Trump and Acting NPS Director Michael Reynolds. “We did not find evidence to substantiate any of these allegations,” the report said. “All of the witnesses we interviewed denied that the NAMA official instructed staff to alter records for the inauguration or to remove crowd size information. We also found no evidence that the public affairs employees released any information to the media about the President’s phone call.” The tension began on Inauguration Day, when the National Park Service retweeted a post [comparing the crowd size](http://time.com/4641381/donald-trump-inauguration-crowd/) at Trump’s inauguration to the larger crowd at former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. The tweet was later removed, and the U.S. Department of Interior was temporarily [ordered to suspend operations](http://fortune.com/2017/01/21/interior-department-twitter-donald-trump-inauguration/) of its Twitter accounts. In the days that followed, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer [falsely said](http://time.com/4643927/sean-spicer-white-house-donald-trump-inauguration-press-briefing/) Trump’s crowd was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” and the Washington _Post_ reported that Trump personally called Reynolds and [ordered him to produce additional photos](http://fortune.com/2017/01/27/president-trump-park-service-inauguration-photos-crowd/) of the crowd size. A more recent report by [CBS News](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-rogue-nps-twitter-account/), which cited National Park Service emails, found that Trump was [“directly involved”](http://time.com/4764256/donald-trump-inauguration-photo-national-park-service/) in the search for the person who retweeted the side-by-side comparison. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/"},"headline":"No, The National Park Service Didn't Alter Photos of Trump's Inauguration Crowd","datePublished":"2017-06-27T16:21:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:20:12.435Z","description":"Disputes over the crowd size became controversial early in Trump's presidency","url":"https://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f9b79fe9527401/6988b780e20a8710d1a93e92/inauguration-crowds-obama-trump-reuters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59f9b79fe9527401/6988b780e20a8710d1a93e92/inauguration-crowds-obama-trump-reuters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A Picture and Its Story: Crowd controversy: The making of an Inauguration Day photo","caption":"A Picture and Its Story: Crowd controversy: The making of an Inauguration Day photo","creditText":"Lucas Jackson (Left) and Stelios Varias (Right)—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4834745/national-park-service-trump-inauguration-crowd-size-report/","name":"No, The National Park Service Didn't Alter Photos of Trump's Inauguration Crowd"}}]}] ```