At his first in 2017, the mood was anything but celebratory: his twenty-minute speech was “deeply populist and too often dark”, as the “Washington Post” described him, talking about children living in poverty, schools in crisis, streets full of crime and “the carnage of America.”
At the same time, before dawn, demonstrators with placards that read “He’s not my president” or “No Trump, No KKK, No Racists” they had begun to take to the streets. At the time of the swearing-in, the protests turned into clashes with the police while some protesters managed to get past security and enter the venue. A woman dressed in pink, shouting “stop the GOP war,” she made it to front-to-back right under the new president before being ushered out. Street fighting in downtown Washington followed, with six police officers injured and 217 protesters arrested.
Elsewhere, one issue that preoccupied Trump strongly was the people who attended the inauguration. He and his staff talked about “the largest public in swearing-in”, talking about a million and a half people. However, experts estimate that in his first inauguration Barack Obamain 2009, the world numbered 800,000 to 1 million. while Trump was attended by a third. Moreover, this becomes clear from the corresponding aerial photographs. For several days after the inauguration, the 45th president of the United States engaged in a skirmish with the media after claiming that they were lying and that the aerial photographs were the fault of the photographers.
The other big issue for Trump was the names of the stars who would attend his “big day.” Although he had put a lot of weight during his election campaign at the time on the “celebrity status” he had due to the reality show “The Apprentice” that he presented, many stars decided not to attend the event, and he did not manage to close any major name to sing.
The “interregnum” of Joe Biden
In 2021, he was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States in a ceremony described as the most “special” in the country’s history after it unfolded under unprecedented circumstances. Just two weeks earlier, one of the blackest pages in modern American history had been written, after Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, did not accept his defeat and disputed the election result, followed by an invasion of the Capitol by his supporters.
Meanwhile, with the pandemic still raging and the death toll exceeding 400,000, Americans were told to stay away, leading to the eerie sight of a new president addressing a near-empty National Mall, filled with flags meant to represent the absent crowd. In fact, Biden and the rest of the participants wore masks at most events.
Through it all, the message of Biden’s speech was unifying (he used the word “unity” 11 times), while he called on Americans to put division behind them in order to deal with both the social problems plaguing them and the pandemic and the its heavy economic consequences. Fearing more violence, Washington had been turned into a fortress, with more than 25,000 uniformed men guarding the venue – a venue with more security than spectators.
A characteristic of this special day was also the absence of outgoing President Trump from the event, despite the custom. Trump left Washington hours before the inauguration, which was attended by his vice president, Mike Pence, whom Biden also mentioned in his speech.
Then, in the Oval Office, Biden signed 17 executive orders aimed at overturning key elements of the previous administration in a sign of repudiation of his predecessor — the most far-reaching set of Inauguration Day actions in modern history. As for the spectacle, in an event that was streamed online due to the conditions, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez sang.
Back with sponsorships – record
President-elect Trump returns to the White House on Monday, when he will officially become the 47th president of the United States. His swearing-in, according to the American media, is expected to be a “routine procedure” in relation to the drama of the previous two. Requests for demonstrations are at a fairly low level compared to 2017, while attendance at the ceremony is expected to be high. Throughout this year’s campaign, Trump’s speech attendance numbers have been a point of contention between him and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Given this and his previous swearing-in, all eyes will be on the issue of the number of participants. For now, Trump has already expressed his dismay that flags will be flown at half-staff to honor the late former president Jimmy Carter.
However, for his big day Trump has raised more than $170 million in donations, a record amount reported by the New York Times. This was helped by sponsorships from tech industry tycoons such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman and Tim Cook.
However, despite his big budget, in terms of after-events, he will hardly be able to compete with the big name shows that appeared at the inauguration of his predecessor, Biden. However, unlike his previous swearing-in, this year the great star of country music Carrie Underwood, who although not an international star is popular among Americans and has won several Grammy awards, agreed to perform. The incoming president also managed to bring the Village People, a legendary band from the 1970s and 80s who perform his favorite YMCA, who have accompanied him in many of his speeches.
As for the world leaders he has invited, they include Georgia Meloni, Viktor Orbán, Xi Jinping, El Salvador’s “coolest dictator in the world” Naguib Bukele and Argentina’s controversial president Javier Millay.
