Trump protests media coverage of crowds at inauguration

While assuring CIA employees of his support for the intelligence community, Donald Trump also found time Saturday to bash the media — including coverage of his inauguration.

Trump said that, contrary to news reports, the crowd for his inaugural address was "packed" and "went all the way back to the Washington Monument" — a claim belied by aerial photos.

The president said his crowd was larger than what the "dishonest media" showed, and he claimed up to a million and a half people attended, though few people beyond Trump supporters put the number so high. Government officials no longer provide crowd estimates at Washington events.

For good measure, Trump also criticized an erroneous media pool report — and tweets citing it — that he had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office, a report that was retracted Friday night.

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