Donald Trump and First Lady Melania were met by a sparse crowd at the White House’s Christmas tree lighting event.
The US President appeared to struggle to fill seats at the tree lighting ceremony in Washington on Thursday.
ABC News journalist Steve Rudin, who was at the event, said it was "hard not to notice the empty seats" at The Ellipse in President's park.
Others said the crowd looked much smaller than at Barack Obama's Christmas tree lighting in 2016.
Another woman, tweeting under the name Red, wrote: “There was a bigger crowd at my son’s fourth grade chorus”.
A woman named Heidi wrote: “@realDonaldTrump it looks like the #ChristmasTreeLighting was a YUGE success! Congratulations, you finally got a big crowd to honoir... Ohhh, oops! Never mind, this is LAST year! #obamaRules!”
A row erupted in January over the size of the crowd that attended Mr Trump’s inauguration. Aerial footage showed empty seats and the media noted that the crowd paled in comparison to Mr Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
But Mr Trump’s then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer maintained that Mr Trump’s inauguration drew the “largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe”.
Mr Trump addressed the crowd at the Christmas tree lighting from behind a protective sheet of glass.
The President has faced a global backlash this week after he retweeted inflammatory anti-Muslim videos from the far right group Britain First.
The posts sparked widespread criticism and Theresa May condemned the President’s actions.
In response to the President’s controversial tweet, Mrs May said that it was just as important to counter the far right as it was to deal with the Islamic threat.
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