Eight years ago, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer notably tried to convince dubious reporters and members of the public that President-elect Donald Trump’s 2017 opening crowd was” the largest visitors to actually see an opening, period”.
The changes, introduced in response to forecasts of frigid temperatures, including snow on Sunday, came after Republicans told the Washington Examiner there were concerns that the price of travel and accommodation, for example, created the risk of Trump supporters deciding against attending the president-elect’s inauguration, despite requesting and receiving tickets. One source said they had been sent an email inviting them to bring “up to six guests” to his swearing-in ceremony.
Crowd size is “certain” to be on Trump’s “mind”, according to Republican strategist Charlie Black, who joked that” Democrats are rigging the weather to make Monday very cold, to discourage attendance”.
More than 250, 000 people have purchased tickets for Trump’s inauguration on Monday, which featured special guests like TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Carrie Underwood performing” America the Beautiful.” The president-elect’s supporters were encouraged to sign up for the Make America Great Again Victory Rally at the 21, 000-person capacity Capital One Arena on Sunday by Trump’s transition team and inaugural committee, but that did not.
” January 20th, 2025 will go down in history, and you’re formally invited by the Trump-Vance , Inaugural , Committee to witness it in person”, reads one email, sent when the swearing-in ceremony was still scheduled to be outside. Your presence would make this historic day even more special, I assure you!
To decrease the costs associated with attending Trump’s inauguration, Tom Dunne, 75, was one of 55 people who chartered an overnight bus that will depart Massachusetts on Sunday night, arrive in Washington on Monday morning, and return later that night.
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Dunne, a New Hampshire farmer and Vietnam War veteran, did not have a ticket to watch Trump’s swearing-in ceremony near the Capitol’s steps and, instead, hoped to experience history from wherever he could, most likely closer to the Washington Monument on the National Mall. If he can get into that event, Dunne will now have the opportunity to witness history come out of the elements at a watch party at Washington’s downtown sporting arena.
Although Dunne’s second inauguration will be on Monday, he flew to Washington from the Granite State to witness Trump’s first swearing-in ceremony, and he said to the Washington Examiner,” My heart wants me to be there for this.”
” It will be worth it to see it live and in person”, Dunne told the Washington Examiner. ” We’ll pack a lunch. We’re going to be ready”.
Denise Page, the events director for Massachusetts’s Danvers Township Republican Committee, who similarly did not have a ticket to Trump’s inauguration, is the driving force behind the bus as a cheaper alternative to flying to and staying in Washington. It will be Page’s first trip to the capital, and the retiree, 67, also told the Washington Examiner she will “probably never go again in my lifetime”.
” I did it because I love President Trump”, she told the Washington Examiner. ” We worked hard for almost two years, flag waving, sign holding every weekend at different locations on the north shore of Massachusetts. I said,’ You know something, I’m going to try to get a bus.’ So I went on Google, googled bus companies, and I found one that I liked that was a decent price, better than most of them. I made a flyer and I put it online, and I got 300 hits within two weeks”.
While Republicans repeatedly alleged that Democrats “bused” supporters to Vice President Kamala Harris‘s events during her 2024 campaign, including for her closing arguments speech at the Ellipse, Page is unconcerned about Trump’s crowd sizes, citing his 19, 500-person rally last fall at Madison Square Garden in New York.
” He doesn’t have to prove anything”, Page said. The electorate voted for him. He’s got a mandate. He’s the president of this country”.
Regardless of Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith telling reporters this week that there are 12 protests planned for Trump’s inauguration, West Virginia Republican Party Executive Director Kyle Saunders argued there has been less “resistance”, “literally and figuratively”, to the president-elect’s second administration, which could have increased his crowd sizes. One Washington hairdresser also stated to the Washington Examiner that as a tribute to Democrats, she intended to wear a donkey shirt this weekend as a tribute to people’s hair for inaugural events.
” Winning the popular vote probably helps with that, even though it was a few percentage points, but I think it does a lot to the psyche for people who may think,’ Well, maybe there’s more people out there that support Trump than we thought,'” Saunders told the Washington Examiner.
Saunders resoluted that there had been no national guidance from either the Republican Party or Trumpworld regarding the “need to pump our numbers” due to “organic interest,” including several inquisitive Democrats who told the Washington Examiner they would also like to observe history.
” I don’t think it’s going to be an issue”, Saunders said of Trump’s crowds. ” I don’t think the enthusiasm and interest in participating is low, but the travel and the accommodation would be a hindrance for people,” said one participant. I think in 2017, it was a crowd of exclusively just, like, super hardcore Trump supporters that attended. I believe there is a larger crowd, likely because of a variety of other factors, as well as because I believe more people feel comfortable supporting the president, regardless of whether they once admired or hated him eight years ago.
Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit organization for young people that augmented the Trump campaign’s get-out-the-vote efforts before last year’s election, was” not really doing crowd building or anything like that” for the president-elect’s inauguration, spokesman Andrew Kolvert said.
According to Kolvert,” I don’t believe they need any sort of generated assistance in that way because everything we’ve heard is that the crowds are going to be kind of insane and huge,” ” Unlike 2016, where there was this sense of holding your nose at the ballot box, these]new right-leaning ] factions, while there may be vehement disagreements and robust debates, they weren’t holding their nose casting their ballots for President Trump]in 2024]. They did it enthusiastically, with a lot of excitement, and a lot of verve, and a lot of passion”.
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Crowd sizes have always been important to Trump after the president-elect embarked on his first administration angry at news coverage comparing his 2017 inauguration audience of between 300, 000 and 600, 000 people to former President Barack Obama‘s 2009 counterpart of 1.8 million. Harris made an effort to use the political vulnerability against Trump during their sole debate in September.
When asked if he regrets his inauguration remarks, Spicer told the New York Times in 2017:” Of course I do, absolutely”.
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