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WASHINGTON (CN) — As Donald Trump ascended to the presidency for a second time surrounded by an exclusive crowd of high-ranking government officials and technology billionaires, his supporters fanned out across Washington in the cold and wind to celebrate his inauguration.
The president’s team made an eleventh-hour decision last week to move proceedings inside the Capitol Building, which not only restricted media coverage of the event but also functionally disinvited many inauguration attendees who had purchased tickets or traveled to see Trump be sworn into office.
“I’m here to witness the inauguration, even though we’re not actually going to be witnessing it,” said Reagan, a man from Virginia who didn’t provide his last name, who donned a revolutionary soldier costume.
Reagan was among the few dozen Trump supporters who gathered on the National Mall despite the chilly temperatures that moved the inaugural ceremony indoors. Instead of watching Trump take the oath of office, his supporters lined eight-foot security fencing across the street from the Capitol, only able to stare at the empty American flag-lined balcony.
Inside, former presidents, Supreme Court justices and a select group of lawmakers and celebrity guests including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook packed into the Rotunda for Trump’s inaugural address that claimed to usher in the “golden age of America.”
Trump touched on a wide range of policy goals, declaring a national emergency at the southern border and pledging to end the “weaponization” of the federal government. The president also said the U.S. would take back the Panama Canal and suggested colonizing Mars.
“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,” Trump said.
Historically, the National Mall stands as the center of inaugural activities, but the majority of Trump’s supporters flocked to the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington — the venue for Monday’s inaugural parade and the site of Trump’s Sunday night “victory rally.”
Scores of supporters queued up for the chance to score indoor seating for the inauguration proceedings. Some spent the night outside in freezing temperatures for a front-row seat to the festivities.
But with lines for the arena stretching for blocks, it was no sure thing that attendees would be able to get inside before the venue reached its capacity of roughly 20,000. Some Trump devotees opted instead to skip the line and watch the inauguration elsewhere.
Millie and Ben Hayes, from Allentown, Pennsylvania, were among the inauguration attendees who avoided the snaking queue.
“We’re not getting in there,” said Ben Hayes, who told Courthouse News that he was an Air Force service member based out of Andrews Air Force Base in nearby Maryland.
Hayes said that he had planned to watch the inauguration from the National Mall, where it would have been broadcast via jumbotron — those large screens came down when proceedings moved indoors.
“I’m a little disappointed that they’re not showing it on that screen that’s right there,” he added, gesturing toward the large digital display screens that adorn the sides of the Capital One Arena.
Some Trump supporters who dodged the arena line opted for smaller screens, filling restaurants and bars in downtown Washington. Attendees wearing red Trump caps and American flag scarves gathered around a TV in the Hard Rock Cafe — and down the street it was standing room only at local pizza chain Matchbox.
Outside FBI headquarters, a trio of inauguration-goers huddled around a phone and a portable speaker to watch Trump take the oath of office.
And despite the biting cold, spirits were high among attendees who milled about the fenced-off city streets. On nearly every street corner, vendors hawked Trump-branded hats, sweaters and presidential bric-a-brac. A busker stationed next to the line for the arena sang along to popular tunes, editing lyrics here and there to reference the new president.
“Clack, clack, Trump is back,” cried one street vendor.
Elsewhere in Washington, hundreds of anti-Trump demonstrators gathered Monday morning at Malcom X Park, less than 2 miles from the White House, to protest the incoming Trump administration’s right-wing agenda.
The event, organized by the D.C. branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation along with other left-wing groups like the Answer Coalition and Sunrise DC, was one of over 80 similar protests across the country.
The group had organized several pro-Palestinian protests and marches throughout the Biden administration, most recently on Jan. 16 after the temporary ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas.
Brian Becker, national director of the ANSWER Coalition, argued that part of the reason Trump was able to return to the White House was due to Biden and Kamala Harris’ continued support of Israel during the war on Gaza.
Becker rejected Trump’s assertion that his reelection came with an “unprecedented mandate” to enact his campaign promises, particularly in terms of immigration.
“What Donald Trump intends to do today, tonight, tomorrow and in the coming weeks, is to deport hundreds of thousands of working class immigrant families and their children; they do not have a mandate for this,” Becker said. “We the people of the U.S. who are not undocumented are here to say we have much more in common with the undocumented community than the billionaire scum in the White House.”
The crowd marched south toward the White House, stopping just blocks from Black Lives Matter Plaza and Lafayette Square, which was surrounded by black riot fencing that was erected around downtown Washington prior to the election certification on Jan. 6. The march then turned toward Dupont Circle, where the crowd remained through the afternoon.
At Malcolm X Park, Ashik Siddique, national co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, decried the Trump administration’s agenda, calling it a “disaster for the working class, both at home and abroad.”
“It means more mass deportations, crackdowns against immigrants, a federal abortion ban, national right to work laws to crack down on labor rights, it means supporting Israel ‘finishing the job’ in Gaza, whatever is happening with the ceasefire,” Siddique told the crowd.
Meanwhile, as the new president gets settled for his first day back in the Oval Office, he is expected to unleash a flotilla of executive orders kickstarting his second administration’s ambitious agenda.
Many of those policies are expected to revolve around immigration, such as an order that would end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants and a move to declare a national emergency at the country’s southern border. The Trump White House has already taken steps to cancel a U.S. Customs and Border Protection service known as CBP One, used to make appointments at the border with immigration officials.
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