The Donald Trump administration is embarking on a new venture of renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The president has been very insistent on how, no matter what he does, he seldom gets any “positive” coverage — so this was a great opportunity for that. But before he was even done with the announcement, he started comparing himself to Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump was again making the claim that he had the biggest crowd at the iconic D.C. location. He first claimed that he pulled a bigger crowd than Barack Obama, but that died down after Obama himself joked about it, and the world moved on to much more pressing concerns.
Trump was announcing the renovations from the Oval Office and was giving an overall update of all construction projects that his administration is undertaking, including the ballroom. Then suddenly, while talking about replacing the surface stone of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump started to talk about Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic speech at the grounds.
“That’s where Martin Luther King gave his great speech,” Trump said. When most people reminisce about Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the focus tends to be on the content of the speech that arguably shifted race relations in the nation. Instead, Trump was focused on the crowd size.
Trump added, “[Dr. King] had a million people, and I had the same exact crowd. Maybe a little bit more.” The president then added, more definitively, “I actually had more people.”
The statements caused a mini-controversy online. One user joked that Trump will probably next claim that, while he was not the first person on the moon, he did it best. Another person reminded people that Trump had just recently removed MLK Day and Juneteenth from the days on which National Park entry would be free.
That’s where Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. He was the first one, they say. He had to wear a silly space suit, but look at me, I’m right there, on the moon, and I just wore a Trump signature suit. I was there way before Neil too. He takes the credit but he knows. pic.twitter.com/Yyinax2aIK
— Brian T (@RefuteThemAll) April 24, 2026
Fun Fact: Donald Trump removed MLK Jr. Day and Juneteenth from the list of National Park free-entry days and added HIS OWN BIRTHDAY. pic.twitter.com/ICchxXFl6A
— Critter (@asclepiasyriaca) April 23, 2026
Trump has had his recent hang-ups with math lately, so his crowd count should be treated with a lot of caution. On the same day, alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump was pushing back at the press — and, really, all math teachers in America — that he could reduce drug prices by 600%.
According to The Associated Press, Obama drew an estimated crowd of 1.8 million at the National Mall. While it’s anyone’s guess why Trump has been so fixated on this number and has tried to inflate his own figures to match or perhaps even top Obama’s, a 2017 analysis could only ascertain that Trump’s first inauguration crowd was about a third of Obama’s number.
Trump’s love for popularity has been clear for all to see. Whenever he argues with Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert, his first swipe is always to bring up their ratings. That was also the case when he had a falling-out with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who just so happened to take over his reality TV show The Apprentice.
Trump competing with Dr. King is undignified to most, but there is still a lesson to learn from it. You can easily conclude what his relationship with vanity and truth is. In a situation where those options are binary — he will always pick vanity.
