January 18, 2025
Eight years ago, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer infamously tried to convince skeptical reporters and members of the public that President-elect Donald Trump‘s 2017 inauguration crowd was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” Now, Republicans, who have been organizing themselves to demonstrate their support for Trump, are under less pressure as […]

Eight years ago, then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer infamously tried to convince skeptical reporters and members of the public that President-elect Donald Trump‘s 2017 inauguration crowd was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”

Now, Republicans, who have been organizing themselves to demonstrate their support for Trump, are under less pressure as the president-elect’s inaugural committee makes last-minute preparations to move the swearing-in ceremony inside the U.S. Capitol, with a watch party at nearby Capital One Arena, separate from a rally there the day before.

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 been ticketed for Trump’s inauguration on Monday, which originally included Carrie Underwood performing “America the Beautiful” and special guests such as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appearing on the podium. But that did not stop Trump’s transition team and inaugural committee from sending emails and text messages to the president-elect’s supporters, encouraging them to sign up to that and his Make America Great Again Victory Rally at the 21,000-person capacity Capital One Arena on Sunday.

“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 appearance would make this historic day even more special!”

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.

INAUGURATION DAY 2025: WHAT TO KNOW AS TRUMP TAKES OFFICE

Workers continue with the finishing touches on the presidential reviewing stand on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House in Washington, ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. (Jon Elswick via AP)

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. The venue shift now provides Dunne with the opportunity to see history unfold out of the elements at a watch party at Washington’s downtown sporting arena, if he can get into that event.

Although Monday will be Dunne’s second inauguration — he drove to Washington from the Granite State for Trump’s first swearing-in ceremony — he told 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 campaigning for Trump. (Denise Page)

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 people 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. At the same time, one Washington hairdresser told the Washington Examiner she intended to wear a donkey shirt this weekend as an ode to Democrats as she styles 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 was adamant there had been no national guidance from either the Republican Party or Trumpworld regarding the “need to pump our numbers” because of “organic interest,” including several curious 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. “Obviously, the travel and the accommodation would be a hindrance for people, but I don’t think the enthusiasm and interest in participating is low. I think in 2017, it was a crowd of exclusively just, like, super hardcore Trump supporters that attended. I think that it’s very likely that there’s a larger crowd, not only because of any number of other reasons, but because I think more people feel like it’s OK to support the president, whether they loved him 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.

“Everything we’ve heard is that the crowds are going to be kind of insane and huge, and I don’t think they need any sort of generated help in that way,” Kolvert told the Washington Examiner. “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.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

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 endeavored to use the political vulnerability against Trump during their one and only debate last 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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