Thousands gathered in downtown D.C. on Jan. 20 to celebrate the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump, despite record-low temperatures that led Trump’s team to move the ceremony inside the Capitol Rotunda.
Supporters stood in long lines down G Street and in front of Capital One Arena with the hopes of seeing Trump’s televised inaugural address inside the arena. Attendees came from across the country expecting Trump to deliver on his top campaign promises, such as enforcing mass deportation and eliminating multiple government positions.
Diana Murphy and Gabriel Meraz traveled from California to celebrate the inauguration and be among Trump supporters with shared hopes for his presidency.
“The biggest thing we want from Trump is less government and more transparency,” Murphy said as she gazed at the Capitol building rioters stormed four years ago.
The Proud Boys, an FBI-categorized extremist group involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, passed by a line of supporters waiting by the Canadian Embassy to partake in viewing parties and celebrations in John Marshall Park.
Murphy and Meraz think the federal government, not the Proud Boys, need to answer for the insurrection.
“We have all these government entities that we pay to find out all these things about national security, and no one can tell us who placed the pipe bomb on Jan. 6,” Murphy said.
The FBI has not given up on identifying and detaining the perpetrator who placed pipe bombs, which did not detonate, outside of the Republican and Democratic National Committees the evening prior to the insurrection.
Hours into his presidency, Trump issued pardons for 14 members of both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, a similar far-right extremist group, for their connections in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In total, the new president pardoned over 1,500 individuals convicted or charged in connection to the riots.
Alongside these pardons, Trump used governmental power to issue more than 200 executive actions less than 24 hours after taking office, according to ABC News. The actions cover new international policies, revoking former President Biden’s previous executive orders, restructuring the federal government and giving mass pardons.
Emmanuel Martinez, waiting near Capital One Arena with his daughter and wife, expressed his hope that Trump also continues to limit immigration.
“I hope he gets more control of the border which has been loosely open for years,” Martinez said, who came from southern Arizona to support Trump.
As promised in his inaugural address, Trump issued an executive order concerning immigration. The order, entitled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”, suspends any immigrant crossing from the southern border into the U.S. and gives additional resources to Immigration Customs and Enforcement to begin mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants already in the U.S.
“From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world,” Trump said in his address. “We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”
Joe Collins, a supporter from Minnesota, also said he anticipated a secure border along with “better trade deals and world peace.”
Amid a line of Trump supporters outside Capital One Arena, Collins described the moment as great and said he was looking forward to a “beautiful” upcoming four years.
“What they’ve done to him the last four years, he’s gained a lot of power and they created the monster,” Collins said. “Now they got to deal with it.”
Seth Drayer, vice president of the anti-abortion advocacy group Created Equal, said he hopes Trump’s presidency will bring a constitutional amendment banning abortion, including in the case of rape or incest.
“I’m here today to remind people that there are many issues, but one central moral issue is abortion,” Drayer said, as he waved a poster of a fetus outside of Capital One Arena.
Trump pardoned 23 anti-abortion protesters tried for attempting to shut down or limit access to clinics, and his administration has deactivated the reproductiverights.gov website, which offered resources on safe and accessible forms of reproductive care.
As pledged in his inaugural address, Trump signed an executive order that established only two sexes in the United States: male and female.
Andy Butsko, who traveled from Scranton, Pennsylvania, said he felt there was a misconception about the Republican party being prejudiced against the LGBTQ+ community. Butsko described the Republican party as “not perfect,” yet not prejudiced.
Butsko said although he took no issue with the LGBTQ+ community in general, he disagreed with transgender individuals within schools. In the next four years, Butsko hopes members on both sides of the aisle may be able to establish legislation outlawing transgender individuals in schools.
“I have my view, and other people have their view, and I would hope that somebody would come to a conclusion that [transgender people in schools is] not necessary,” Butsko said. “That doesn’t make somebody prejudiced against the person in the classroom trying to educate people on how they identify.”
While supporters of the president gathered around the National Mall, Grant Sallager walked with a friend, the pair displaying posters supporting transgender youths and criticizing Trump.
Sallager said in the next four years it will be important to listen to voices from the right to hear and analyze their arguments. By listening to the opposition, Sallager said it would be easier to “understand where people are coming from when you want to help change your mind.”
“People are telling me, you want to chop kids’ balls off,” Sallager said. “No, I want to let kids express their gender however the hell they want.”
By staying “plugged in” and attentive to the language used by the right, Sallager said it would be easier to navigate this time.
“Sometimes, it’s deeply upsetting to listen to the people you don’t agree with, because it’s scary and it sucks during the comment section,” Sallager said. “But it’s good to at least be informed on what other people think, even if what they think is garbage.”
This article was edited by Abigail Hatting, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Olivia Citarella and Ella Rousseau.
