Presidential inaugurations are the American equivalent of the UK’s coronation and State Opening of Parliament combined. They take place regularly every four years, 10 or 11 weeks following a presidential election.
The only constitutional significance is that the newly elected president takes the oath of office solemnly swearing to “support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies”.
He (so far all 45 presidents have been men) then goes straight to the White House and starts governing.
Unless a sitting president has been re-elected, inaugurations usually mark a fresh start for the United States with a new head of state. Not this time.
Donald Trump is only the second president to be elected for a second time, having lost an election in between, making him both the 45th and 47th POTUS (President Of The United States).
The last two inaugurations, of Trump in January 2017 and of Joe Biden in 2021, were of more than constitutional significance. They both broke with the usual ceremonial niceties in ways which foretold and exemplified the extraordinary disruptions which have struck the US over the past decade. I reported on both of them from Washington DC for Sky News.
Trump’s first inauguration is remembered for two things. The aggressive rhetoric of his speech and the refusal of the new president and his staff to accept the truth of their own eyes.
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In their first address to the nation as president, the new man usually tries to be inspirational while humbly acknowledging the challenge of leading the greatest country in the world.
Not Donald Trump. He had campaigned on the promise to make America great again, and he tore into the state of the nation he was taking over as “American carnage”.
He complained: “We’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry… subsidised the armies of other countries… America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay… millions and millions of workers left behind.”
Instead, he promised “from this moment on it’s going to be ‘America First’… America will start winning, winning like never before”.
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Bush: ‘That was some weird s***!’
The speech was a shock to the VIP guests assembled; as he left the dais outside the US Capitol, Trump’s predecessor as a Republican president, George W Bush, was heard remarking: “That was some weird s***”
The day only got stranger. The District of Columbia is a strongly Democratic area which had voted for Hillary Clinton. Aerial photography, helped by white ground protection in the Mall, suggested that the turnout by the public to witness the event was less than usual.
The Washington Metro reported fewer passengers than on a normal Friday. Official estimates later confirmed that both live and TV audiences for Trump’s inauguration had been significantly smaller than they had been for Barack Obama’s and Ronald Reagan’s first inaugurations.
But that day Sean Spicer, President Trump’s first official spokesman, informed the White House press corps that there had been “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration. Period.” Trump’s close aide Kellyanne Conway backed him up on network TV and provided one of the iconic quotes of the first Trump administration by explaining that Spicer had presented “alternative facts“.
The size of the crowd was not an issue for Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021 because Washington DC was effectively in a state of lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 6 January assault on the US Congress.
Barricades, barbed wire and troops guarded the grassy areas where spectators usually stand. In place of people, there was a “field of flags” of the 50 United States. The main swearing-in still took place outside the Capitol, albeit with health measures in force, including face masks and social distancing, and a more limited guest list than usual.
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Trump shuns Biden inauguration
Trump had survived his second impeachment trial days earlier and continued to promote the “big lie” that he had won the 2020 election. He became the first living president since 1869 not to greet or attend the inauguration of his successor.
He staged his own rival, and near simultaneous, departure ceremony from the White House, and told those waving him off at Andrews Airforce Base: “Goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form.”
Trump’s absence from the inauguration was pointed, as is Michelle Obama’s no-show at his second inauguration on Monday. Her husband and the other living former presidents will be there.
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The non-attendance of Sir Keir Starmer is a non-story. No British prime minister has attended an inauguration; foreign presidents and prime ministers are usually represented by their ambassadors. There is speculation that Netanyahu of Israel and Milei of Argentina might attend in person this year.
Compared to Trump four years earlier, Biden’s inaugural speech was a traditional celebration of “the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy”.
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He looked forward to a return to normality and unity after the turmoil of the Trump years: “So now, on this hallowed ground where just days ago violence sought to shake the Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.”
“Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path,” Biden assured the American people, “every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. And we must reject a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured”.
The next four years did not turn out as he had hoped.
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Biden ‘abuse of power’ warning
Biden has been a one-term president and Trump has been re-elected. This week in his final address to the nation, President Biden admitted “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power”.
Attacking what he called “the tech-industrial complex”, he warned, “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme, wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead”.
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Tech billionaires are cosying up to the president-elect. The large donations to the Inauguration Committee by Meta’s Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Bezos, Palantir’s Thiel, OpenAI’s Altman, Uber and Google, however, are fairly routine behaviour by the biggest US corporations. Ford and General Motors are also contributing.
Unlike Biden in 2021, this year Biden will be able to enjoy the full celebrations new presidents have come to expect: lunch at the Capitol, a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, and no less than five official inauguration balls in the evening.
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In the past, Democratic presidents have often been welcomed with star-studded concerts, free to the public. This year Village People, Trump’s favourite dance band, are performing. But no major events are planned.
Beyond a few country and western performers and a handful of maverick actors, most celebrities are against Trump. Spirits have also been dashed by the fires in Los Angeles, the home of US showbusiness.
There is physical carnage in California, war in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, and bitter disunity at home in the US.
The whole world will be listening with apprehension on Monday to what Donald Trump has to say when he is inaugurated as the American president for the second time.
