Washington In contrast to eight years ago, when he narrowly defeated his opponent and took office while police pepper-sprayed protesters who were terrified by his ascent, Donald Trump wants his second inauguration to be more widely accepted and applauded.
An someone close to the president-elect told NBC News, speaking on condition of anonymity, that he hopes this time there would be fewer protests and less division.
Unlike in 2016, Trump won both the popular vote and the electoral college by a wide margin in this year’s election. According to the source, Trump is confident that his presidency won’t be stigmatized in the same way as it was in the past after those outcomes.
Trump hopes that. His advisors are currently working on an inauguration that will be unlike any that the United States has witnessed since Grover Cleveland was the first to retake the White House four years after voters ousted him in the late 19th century.
According to a person familiar with the planning, aides have created a logo for the January 20 inaugural event and have developed a website that will shortly launch.
For the swearing-in, which will be followed by numerous receptions, luncheons, and a procession that ends at a White House reviewing stand that is currently being built, they have been reserving blocks of hotel rooms and brainstorming themes. (The Washington Post claims that some residents of D.C. have been attempting to persuade Airbnb hosts to either boost the fees and donate the proceeds to leftist organizations or refrain from renting out their apartments during the inauguration.)
Around Trump’s swearing-in, there will also be a women’s march, albeit it might not be as large as the nationwide protest that happened in 2017.
According to Linda Sarsour, one of the march’s co-chairs, the political climate has become more hazardous for women to publicly criticize Trump’s leadership.
In an interview, she stated, “We just don’t think it’s safe to have people in Washington, D.C. during the same weekend when we have an influx of MAGA in Washington.” We must exercise caution.
Trump still has a lot of preparation to do. The number of inauguration balls has not yet been decided by his advisors. (He danced at three official balls in 2017 with his wife, Melania.) Trump’s team has not yet stated whether the campaign will take donations from lobbyists or companies, despite the fact that he will once more use a presidential inauguration committee to generate funds.
A record-breaking $107 million was raised for Trump’s first inauguration, but it also led to allegations of careless bookkeeping and a $750,000 settlement over the funds’ whereabouts.
The event is a unique fusion of the old and the modern, as Trump will return to office after a four-year break. The country knew a lot about Trump as a person when he was initially sworn in, but not much about his style of governance.
Americans now have a clearer notion of how he would govern, but they don’t fully comprehend how his four years of exile may have changed his priorities and way of thinking. Is he determined to exact revenge, as he has occasionally implied?Or did he mean it when he stated that his party is all about inclusion in his victory speech?
The tone created by the inaugural may provide hints about his preferred style of leadership. After the ceremony, Trump is expected to lead departing President Joe Biden to a helicopter, in addition to giving a prearranged address.
Given that Trump boycotted Biden’s swearing-in after launching an unsuccessful attempt to reverse the outcome based on bogus allegations that the election was rigged, that straightforward and conventional gesture—which is rooted in the peaceful transfer of power—takes on additional significance.
According to the source with knowledge of the preparation, one goal of the original organizers was to prioritize regular Americans over famous visitors during the activities.
Trump has attracted a number of celebrities, most of whom were well-known in the 20th century when he reached adulthood as a Manhattan real estate tycoon. According to a person close to Trump, he was encouraged to see Rocky movie star Sylvester Stallone join him at an event at his Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month.
According to a representative for Real American Beer, an adult beverage firm that Hogan created and whose motto is One Nation, Under Beer, the 71-year-old pro wrestling legend Hulk Hogan spoke at the Republican nomination convention in Milwaukee over the summer and intends to attend the inauguration.
According to a representative for him, singer Lee Greenwood will also be present and will perform if asked. God Bless the USA is a song written by Greenwood that has become a campaign hymn for Trump.
The opening stage will also feature Biden and his spouse, Jill. It’s unclear if Hillary Clinton will attend. A representative for Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump, chose not to comment.
The number of people who will assemble to watch the ceremony on the National Mall is an uncontrollable variable.
He cares about this. A great deal.
There was a protracted back and forth about how many people attended his previous inaugural.Photographs revealed that Barack Obama’s swearing-in in 2009 attracted a larger crowd. Trump, who is always aware of his popularity, objected to the suggestion that Obama had attracted a larger audience.
Trump called him the following morning to tell him about a TV news program he had watched that contrasted the two audiences eight years apart, according to his White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s memoir.
Spicer added that the president made it clear that this issue needed to be resolved immediately. That sparked a heated discussion over crowd size in the White House press briefing room about what seemed like a trifling matter on the first full day of a new presidency.
Former Georgia U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler and real estate investor Steven Witkoff will chair the inauguration.
Their handling of the influx of private funds will be one test.
In one case, a $25,000 payment from Katherine Johnson was recorded by Trump’s inaugural committee in 2017, with NASA headquarters listed as the address.
That seemed to be a reference to the space agency s famed mathematician, but theKatherine Johnsonwho had been celebrated in a movie in 2016 was by then in her 90s. Her family claims that she had not made any such payment to Trump and that she was no longer employed by NASA.
What you would hope the transition team would learn from that experience is you actually have to keep accurate records of where you got the money for the inauguration, said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at the Stetson University law school and author of the book, Corporatocracy.
In 2022, the attorney general in Washington, D.C. announced a settlement in which Trump s inaugural committee and Trump Organizationpaid a total of $750,000to resolve a case stemming from inauguration spending.
The attorney general, Karl Racine, had alleged that the inauguration committee had improperly overpaid for events at what was then the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. (In the settlement, the defendants disputed the allegations and denied any wrongdoing).
No one is above the law not even a president, Racine said at the time in a prepared statement.
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