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ARTICLE
ARTICLEHe might make for watchable TV, but when it comes to getting Americans off their couches, it looks like Donald Trump can't quite pull Barack Obama-level crowds.
President-elect Donald Trump's inaugural crowd on Jan. 20 is expected to be half of what President Barack Obama's was back in 2009, though Trump's gathering should still be pretty big(ly).
Depending on which estimate you look at, the turnout for Trump is expected to be anywhere from 700,000-900,000, unless you're counting protesters, in which case, the crowd may climb into seven figures.
A branch of the U.S. Armed Forces Joint Task Force is planning on a crowd of around 800,000, according to NBC, while other governmental bodies estimate numbers slightly higher and lower.
It's still a sizable crowd. If the numbers hold up, Trump's audience would be on par with former President Bill Clinton's in 1993, and would easily outdistance former President George W. Bush's audience of around 300,000 in 2001.
But even the top-end estimates for Trump's crowd are only half of Obama's audience of around 1.8 million in 2009, the largest crowd ever assembled on the mall in Washington, D.C, according to The Washington Post. That inauguration beat out the estimated crowd of 1.2 million who assembled for the inauguration of former President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
Obama's numbers were down at the 2013 ceremony following his reelection, but still high by comparison. Around one million people turned out, a number still likely to top the Jan. 20 gathering.