The inauguration of Donald Trump was moved to modest premises. The cold may not have been the main cause, the event was not spared embarrassment either.
Donald Trump took office as the President of the United States at the moment he solemnly pledged during the inauguration ceremony. The solemn act is usually attended by hundreds of thousands of people, from official representatives from abroad, through invited guests, to spectators in the back rows. This year, the matter only concerned a fraction of them, as the ceremony was moved indoors due to frost, which also affected invited Trump supporters from the Czech Republic.
Democratic President Joe Biden was replaced by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump after four years in office. The White House transition is accompanied by the traditional inauguration ceremony, which is a grand symbolic act.
The extraordinary nature of Trump's second inauguration was suggested by the fact that he raised a record amount of money from sponsors. Technology billionaires such as Trump's supporter from the presidential campaign Elon Musk or the founder of Facebook Marc Zuckerberg, who contributed amounts in millions of dollars, are also related to the changes that Facebook is planning to introduce in the regulation of content on the social network.
Cold or fear of bad photos did not allow the invited guests to attend
However, the magnificence of Trump's entrance into office was diminished by the announcement that the ceremony, for the first time since 1985, did not take place outdoors in front of the Capitol building but inside the congressional residence, which greatly limited the number of direct spectators. The replacement was a direct broadcast to the multi-purpose hall of the hockey players Washington Capitals.
"Donald Trump announced the move of his Monday inauguration to the interior of the Capitol rotunda. Because it's supposed to be cold outside. Given that only a few hundred people can fit inside, the vast majority of his fans will be out of luck. And according to reactions on the networks, they are not pleased with this... I would say that this (the 2017 inauguration) is the only real reason why Trump let it be moved. He doesn't care about a few cold people. What he doesn't care about are potential photos where again there will only be a few fans...,"
Journalist Vladimír Foltán speculated on the X network about a photo of a half-empty space from 2017.
The fact is that the interior spaces could only accommodate about 800 invited guests, but there were tickets for 250,000 people. A number of European populist and conservative politicians have been invited. From the Czech Republic, for example, MEP Filip Turek, Klára Dostálova (ANO) or the leader of the Přísaha movement Robert Šlachta travelled to the inauguration. However, both could not get into the hall, even though they travelled to the USA (Turek, for example, as early as December 28).
Only the Czech Ambassador Miloslav Stašek managed to get into the building where the ceremony was taking place.
"The rotunda can accommodate around 600-700 people. There are 535 members of Congress alone. The rest are family, incoming and outgoing administration, judges etc. Dignitaries who make it into Congress will be watching the ceremony on screen in the adjacent hall of the visitor center. The inauguration is not organized by Donald Trump, but by the American Congress. The bipartisan committee composed of representatives of the majority and minority in both houses traditionally invites ambassadors who have a special program (receptions, participation in one of the balls) organized by the US Department of Foreign Affairs,"
He described on the X network what the significantly reduced Czech participation in the deputy ambassador's ceremony in the USA looked like, Jan Havránek.
The event was not spared from Embarrassment, guests laughed loudly
Havránek, and Robert Šlachta equally, mentioned that there is sunny weather in Washington, even though the temperatures are several degrees below zero. The chairman of the Oath invited to the unimplemented outdoor ceremony stated, that the weather was not the real reason for changes, but they might have been security concerns.
After taking the ceremonial oath, Donald Trump gave a half-hour speech on what his administration is planning. He placed a strong emphasis on supporting fossil fuels and selling oil and natural gas from the USA, which are the world's largest producer of these commodities.
The ceremony also had its embarrassing moment after his speech. Singer Carrie Underwood was supposed to sing, but she waited in vain for musical accompaniment for two minutes. The silent gap was then filled with the laughter of the guests. The gaffe was laughed at by, for example, former president Bill Clinton or the present billionaire Elon Musk.
Sources: author's article, idnes.cz, irozhlas.cz, newsstream.cz, cnn.iprima.cz, x.com
