Spicer repeated the claim that crowds at Trump's inauguration ceremony were the largest ever at such an event and that the press had deliberately underestimated the number of spectators.

[11][12][13] After this statement was widely criticized, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said that Spicer had presented what she called "alternative facts" regarding the inauguration's attendance numbers.

[30][31] In 2012, he acquired a master's degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.

[38] As of December 2016, he was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff's naval reserve contingent in Washington, D.C.,[39] and in 2017 was a member of the Department of Defense Criminal Investigative Task Force.

[43] From 2009 to 2011, Spicer was a partner at Endeavor Global Strategies, a public relations firm he co-founded to represent foreign governments and corporations with business before the U.S.

[44] His clients included the government of Colombia, which was then seeking a free trade agreement with the U.S. amid public criticism of its human rights record.

[46] At the RNC, he enlarged the organization's social media operations, built an in-house TV production team, and created a rapid response program to reply to attacks.

In June 2015, after Trump said illegal immigrants from Mexico were involved in crimes in the U.S., Spicer said "painting Mexican Americans with that kind of a brush, I think that's probably something that is not helpful to the cause.

[51] An April 2017 Politico/Morning Consult poll showed that Spicer had a nationwide name recognition of 60%, much higher than most other White House staffers and previous press secretaries.

[14] He said floor coverings over the grass were to blame for a visual effect that made the audience look smaller, and stated they had never been used before despite the fact that they had been used in 2013 for the preceding second inauguration of Barack Obama.

[58] It was subsequently reported that Spicer had made the statement on direct orders from Trump, who was furious at what he considered unfair press coverage of his inauguration.

The article referred to the "Trump administration's needless lies" and noted that Spicer's statements appeared to involve a "deliberate attempt to mislead".

[66][67] When Spicer was asked about attendance at the inauguration, he said that his definition of a viewing audience also included individuals who watched the event on television as well as on social media online.

Trump was also upset at White House chief of staff Reince Priebus for recommending Spicer, the network reported.

He said that Russia should not support the Syrian government and also commented that in World War II, "You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons.

[8][9][10] In February 2017, the White House selectively blocked several news outlets – including the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Politico – from an off-camera briefing (or "gaggle") with Spicer, a move that prompted strong objections from the outlets concerned, as well as by the White House Correspondents' Association.

[78][79][80] The Washington Post wrote that the barring of the outlets was "a rare and surprising move that came amid President Trump's escalating war against the media.

"[80] Reporters from the Associated Press and Time magazine were admitted to the briefing, but chose not to attend in protest of the exclusion of other journalists.

[81] On July 11, 2017, Spicer, along with Donald Trump, and Dan Scavino (the White House director of social media), was sued by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University in U.S. federal court in Manhattan.

He made his decision known immediately after President Trump appointed financier Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director.

[91] Spicer announced in December 2017 on The Sean Hannity Show that he would release a book, The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President, in July 2018 about his tenure with the Trump administration.

[92] On July 31, 2019, President Trump announced his intention to appoint Spicer to be a Member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy[93] and later did so.

[94] On September 8, 2021, the White House Communications Director confirmed that President Joe Biden sought resignation letters from all 18 former military academy Presidential appointees placed in the final months of the prior administration, which included Spicer, and those who refused would be terminated that evening.

One ABC employee told CNN journalist Oliver Darcy: "It's a slap in the face to those of us who had to deal with his baloney and the consequences of the ongoing lies and disinformation campaign at the White House."