It was sunny and 25 degrees in Washington, DC yesterday-- hardly one of the coldest days, but enough for convicted felon Trump to get away with moving the inauguration indoors. It's widely believed that his advisors were glad for the excuse to avoid pictures showing (what was certainly going to be) below-average attendance on the national mall. Trump even ordered that the Jumbotrons on the mall be turned off-- which is strange, since they were already installed and ready to go, so there was no extra cost to just letting the screens broadcast the (inside) ceremony.
There were reports of numerous groups of Trump supporters (mostly men) wandering the streets and subways stations looking for places to go or watch the ceremony. There wasn't enough room in the Capitol rotunda for all the VIP's-- even members of Congress were forced to leave their spouses behind to make room for the tech titans and foreign leaders (which have traditionally never been invited to inauguration). The downtown arena only held 20,000-- so supporters were forced to watch in bars and or their hotel rooms or standing in the cold outside the arena. Late today, the inauguaral's ratings are downright underwhelming compared to both his own 2017 inauguration and Joe Biden’s in 2021. Trump’s inauguration ratings dipped 27% from Biden’s 2021 viewership and 20% from his first inauguration in 2017. That means that more people watched Beyonce’s Christmas halftime show than the 47th president’s inauguration.
Trump's leaving his supporters in the lurch days before the inauguration is a perfect metaphor for what he has done (repeatedly) in the past (remember the infamous border wall?) and what he will (likely) do this time around.
Here is a chart of all the things that Trump has publicly sworn to do on Day One-- most of which he will almost certainly renege on.
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