Not a party for everyone: Trump's inauguration will be held indoors with limited guests
The Axios portal reports that Donald Trump's inauguration, scheduled for Monday, January 20, will take place indoors, which significantly changes the plans of the inhabitants of Capitol Hill - senators and congressmen.
The ceremony will reportedly take place in the Capitol Rotunda, an extremely confined space that will likely prevent many lawmakers from attending.
When Ronald Reagan's inauguration was held in the rotunda in 1985, only 96 people were invited to the event, according to contemporary reports, Axios recalls.
That's significantly fewer than the 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 senators, not to mention Trump's family, Cabinet appointees, staff, Supreme Court justices and other VIP guests.
Trump, in a post on his platform Truth Social, said Washington is expecting "arctic winds" on January 20 that "could bring record low temperatures."
"Therefore, I have directed that the Inaugural Address, as well as prayers and other speeches, be held in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol," Trump wrote.
He added that the 20-seat Capital One Arena in downtown D.C. will broadcast the ceremony live and will host the presidential parade.
Lawmakers and their staffers told Axios that moving the ceremony to the rotunda calls their plans into question.
Some House members who planned to attend the event said they were trying to iron out details.
It came as a relief to some Democrats who had been hesitant to attend the inauguration of a man they criticize.
Recall that invitations to the inauguration were sent to a number of far-right politicians from EU countries who share MAGA views. In particular, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban, leader of the British party Reform UK Nigel Farage, the niece of the leader of the French nationalists Marechal Le Pen, co-chairman of the Alternative for Germany Tino Chrupalla and others.
The very high level of Chinese representation at the ceremony is significant: Xi Jinping, with whom Trump spoke by phone yesterday to discuss TikTok issues, trade, and efforts to achieve peace in Ukraine, dispatched the second-highest ranking official in the CPC hierarchy, his deputy Han Zheng, to Washington.
According to the Associated Press, Trump initially invited foreign leaders to the inauguration ceremony, which goes against inauguration tradition. Xi Jinping was among others invited to the event.
However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that the Chinese president's deputy would attend the inauguration instead, as "no head of state has previously visited the United States on an official inauguration visit" ; only foreign diplomats were present.
In other words, Xi Jinping would have been present at the inauguration otherwise. So, by Chinese standards, the presence of the second-ranking official in the CPC at the ceremony is the highest level of politeness in such a situation.
No one will represent Russia at Trump's inauguration - there were no invitations from Washington. However, as Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov stated, if the Russian Federation's chargé d'affaires is invited, he will be present.
A party not for everyone: Trump's inauguration will be held indoors with a limited number of guests.