Trump draws embarrassingly tiny crowd for National Christmas Tree lighting

His holiday party was marred by the awkwardness of his petty exclusion of prominent black and LGBT journalists.

And then, at the National Tree lighting ceremony, he was further humiliated by hundreds of empty chairs:

On the left: @BarackObama’s National Tree Lighting
On the right: @realDonaldTrump’s National Tree Lighting #Christmas pic.twitter.com/wYoLJRO2r6

— Jeremy Dickey (@JeremyDDickey) November 30, 2017

The scene is similar to the massive amount of empty space on the National Mall during Trump’s inauguration, which he petulantly tried to claim was the result of media-manipulated photographs. It also recalls his daughter Ivanka’s near-empty room at her laughably insincere “women’s empowerment” speech in Tokyo.

Trump’s failure to draw a crowd to the ceremony is all the more pathetic because, according to TMZ, Trump did everything in his power to try to make his first tree lighting more impressive than President Barack Obama’s final one last year.

Wherever Trump goes, the tiny crowds at his events serve as a reminder to him that, despite his office, he cannot command the respect and admiration he wanted. And he never will.