WASHINGTON – In his second run-off, Donald Trump wants a more widely attended and celebrated inauguration than when he took office eight years ago, overtaking his rival, as police fired pepper spray at protesters worried about his rise.
He’s hoping for fewer protests and “less divisiveness” this time, a person close to the president-elect told NBC News, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s thinking.
In this year’s election — unlike in 2016 — Trump won both the popular vote and the electoral college by a comfortable margin. Based on these results, Trump believes that his presidency will not be stigmatized as it was then.
That’s Trump’s hope. For now, his advisers are working on an inauguration unlike anything the United States has seen since the late 19th century, when Grover Cleveland became the first person to take back the White House four years after voters ousted him.
Aides have designed a logo for the Jan. 20 opening ceremony and a website that will go live soon, a person familiar with the plan said.
They have booked hotel rooms and seminar topics for the inauguration, which will include multiple receptions, dinners and finally a parade that ends at the White House viewing stand, which is currently under construction. (Some DC residents are trying to encourage Airbnb hosts not to rent out our properties during the opening, or to raise prices and donate to liberal groups, According to The Washington Post.)
A women’s march is also planned around Trump’s inauguration, though it may be smaller than the mass demonstration that swept the country in 2017.
Linda Sarsour, one of the co-chairs of that march, said she believes the political climate is now more dangerous for women to publicly protest Trump’s presidency.
“We just don’t think it’s safe to have people in Washington during the same weekend that there’s a MAGA influx,” he said. “We have to be careful.”
Trump’s plan has a lot of work to do. The consultants have not yet decided on the number of first balls to be held. (In 2017, he and his wife, Melania, danced at three official balls.) While Trump will again use the presidential inaugural committee to raise money, his team has not yet said whether the operation will accept donations from corporations or lobbyists.
Trump’s first inauguration brought in a record-breaking $107 million, but also sparked accusations of sloppy accounting and resulted in a $750,000 legal settlement over where the money went.
Trump will take office after a four-year hiatus, and the event will be a rare mix of old and new. When he was first inaugurated, the public knew a lot about Trump the man, but very little about how he would govern.
Americans now have a better idea of ​​how he will rule, but little do they understand how his four years in exile might change his thinking and priorities. Is he bent on revenge, as suggested from time to time? Or was he sincere when he said in his victory speech that his party was about “inclusion”?
The inauguration will set a tone that could provide clues about how he wants to lead. Trump will certainly make a speech, but will likely escort outgoing President Joe Biden to a waiting helicopter after the ceremony.
This simple and traditional gesture, rooted in a peaceful transfer of power, takes on added meaning given that Biden skipped the swearing-in after Trump made a failed bid to overturn the tabulation based on false allegations that the election was rigged.
One of the goals of inauguration planners is to put business Americans front and center during events, as opposed to celebrity guests, a person familiar with the planning said.
The celebrities Trump has drawn to his side are mostly 20th-century figures who came of age as Manhattan real estate developers. Trump was heartened to appear with “Rocky” franchise star Sylvester Stallone during an event at the Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month, according to a person close to him.
Pro wrestling icon Hulk Hogan, now 71, spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this summer and plans to attend the inauguration, according to a spokeswoman for Real American Beer, the adult beverage company with the slogan “One Nation Under Beer.” The company founded by Hogan.
Singer Lee Greenwood will also attend and perform if requested, his spokesperson said. Greenwood wrote the song that became Trump’s campaign anthem: “God Bless the United States of America.”
Biden and his wife Jill will also appear on the inauguration stage. It’s unclear if Hillary Clinton plans to be there. A spokesperson for Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 race, declined to comment.
A variable beyond Trump’s control is the size of the crowd that will gather on the National Mall to watch the ceremony.
This is important to him. a lot.
His latest inauguration caused a long back-and-forth over the number of people who came to watch. Photos were displayed that Barack Obama drew more people to his 2009 inauguration. Always attuned to the ratings, Trump balked at the idea that Obama was drawing larger crowds.
His White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, wrote in his memoirs that Trump called him the next morning to talk about a television news segment comparing two audiences eight years apart.
“The president was clear: this had to be addressed now,” Spicer said. It touched off a contentious exchange in the White House press briefing room on what seemed to be a trivial matter on the first full day of the new presidency: crowd size.
The opening ceremony will be chaired by former US Senator Kelly Loeffler from Georgia and real estate investor Steven Witkoff.
One test will be the management of private donations pouring in.
In one example in 2017, Trump’s founding committee listed a $25,000 donation from someone named Katherine Johnson, listing the address as NASA headquarters.
It seemed to be a reference to the famous mathematician of the space agency, but Katherine Johnson In 2016, it was in the 90s that was mentioned in a movie. He no longer worked for NASA and, according to his family, had not made any such donation to Trump.
“What you hope the transition team will learn from this experience is that you keep accurate records of where you got the money for the inauguration,” said author Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a professor at Stetson University’s law school and the author of the study. The book “Corporatocracy”.
In 2022, the Washington attorney general announced a settlement involving Trump’s inaugural committee and the Trump Organization. paid a total of $750,000 to settle the case arising out of the inauguration expenses.
Attorney General Carl Racine alleged that the inauguration committee paid “good money” for events at what was then the Trump International Hotel in Washington (the defendants in the case dispute the claims and deny any wrongdoing).
“No one is above the law, not even the president,” Racine said in a prepared statement.