WASHINGTON—“MAGAVERSE” was the inscription on the cybertruck that drove along the streets of Logan Circle Saturday night. As DC locals fled the area, the proud hunk of stainless steel was a precursor to the weekend’s fanfare.
Trump’s ‘Victory Rally’ on Sunday marked the beginning of the 47th president’s triumphant return after leaving office under the shadow of an attack by his supporters four years ago.
Though temperatures fell as low as 24 degrees during the day and brought sheets of freezing rain, sleet, wet snow, and bitter winds, the weather didn’t dampen the crowd’s buzz. The line to enter Capital One Arena for the final Trump rally before his inauguration wrapped around two city blocks. Attendees happily waited in the brutal cold, slowly creeping forward as heightened checkpoints with Secret Service, FBI, and Homeland Security screened just a handful at once.
Nearly all wore some sort of Make America Great Again merchandise — “Daddy’s Home” hoodies and red hats with white lettering dominating not just the line, but most groups walking the Federal Triangle and National Mall area.
A huddled cluster temporarily stepped aside, making a conscious effort to stay warm; taking one Fireball shot after another. The alcohol’s cardboard packaging and empty plastic joined the sea of soggy litter lining the historic streets, which would later become blanketed by fresh snow and trapped in re-frozen ice. Weren’t they planning on returning to the arena the next day?
The National Mall, lined by Secret Service fencing and snow-dirt sludge, looked as ready as can be for its promised day. The Capitol sported American flags while red, white, and blue porta-potties flanked to its left, evoking the last time the building was decorated for an inauguration against a dark grey sky and crowds of red hats on January 6, 2021. The president-elect has shifted gears to be sworn in indoors, the first time since Reagan, but the Mall is still expected to host both supporters and protestors.
Canada, in the news as it prepares for a colder allyship with the States, showed its support for the president-elect in its own way: A declaration of acknowledgment of Trump and Vance’s victory hangs from the top right corner of its embassy facing the Capitol, about 30 feet above Jimmy Carter’s remembrance poster, relegated to the bottom left.
Standing before the embassy was a “Bikers and Amish for Trump” stage.
Attendees we spoke to ranged from DC area locals, travelers from across the country, and even a Trump fan who flew in from Guatemala to see his inauguration. (What made her go through all the effort? “Donald Trump! After what he’s been through, we felt like we needed to be here.”)
One young man from northern Virginia kept a lower profile in line, looking around. “I’ve never been to an inauguration, and I’m mostly here to broaden my perspective,” he told us. “Not super excited for the inauguration tomorrow, but I thought if I’m 20 minutes away from an inauguration and a rally, I might as well see it for the first time. There’s a lot of enthusiasm, people coming out from a lot of parts of the country — it’s really interesting, I’ll say that.”
An older gentleman arrived on a small convoy of buses traveling from Pennsylvania, courtesy of Right for Bucks County. This was his second inauguration in person, but first in decades — He told us he lived in DC in the 1980s as an employee of the federal agency Voice of America, but endorses Musk’s concept of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which aims to eliminate some federal agencies and employees.
“Elon Musk, Department of Government Efficiency, [is] fixing stupid,” he told us, shuffling a bit forward as the line moved. “We have wealth and we have great people, we should be the richest country in the world, not the most bankrupt.”
Does his position as a former fed gov employee affect how he sees government efficiency? “There was no waste in the Voice of America; the waste is [the] Department of Energy and Department of Education, where they spend all this money on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which destroys all our businesses and companies.”
Nondescript volunteers were posted at many points along the line and Secret Service entries, insistently handing out free copies of a book titled The Great Controversy: Will Two Former Rivals Unite? The cover, listing no author, depicts the United States Capitol building reflecting the Vatican. Through research, we learned this book was written by Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in 1858. Its central themes revisit historical events through a nonsecular lens and prophesize the United States federal government will break down the separation of church and state and merge with the Vatican.
Who this group was handing out the books at Trump’s rally or why is unknown, but NPR notes that donors across the country contribute to its distribution and have for quite some time; mass numbers of copies have been sent to random addresses in cities across the country, including San Francisco.
Trump fans aren’t DC’s only visitors this weekend. A massive coalition of progressive organizations, including many who participated in the Coalitions to March on the RNC and DNC last summer, will gather on the National Mall during the inauguration to protest Trump and his incoming administration’s pledges.
An excerpt from a press release distributed by Freedom Road Socialist Organization on behalf of the demonstration:
Trump’s agenda includes mass deportations, attacks on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and birthright citizenship, and other measures that threaten immigrant communities; These attacks on one community are understood by activists as attacks on all of us. The demonstrations will also highlight issues such as reproductive rights, women’s rights, and the fight for justice across all oppressed communities. “The stakes are high, and silence will not keep us safe. Fighting back will,” said Omar Flores, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the RNC in Milwaukee, who will be joining the demonstration in Washington, D.C.
The January 20 demonstrations, in D.C., and across the country, will mark the beginning of a sustained resistance to this administration. Protesters will take to the streets from coast to coast to mark the beginning of the battles ahead– the aim is to build the people’s movements that will stop Trump’s racist and backward agenda in its tracks.
We reached Flores directly for further comment on bringing his organization efforts we covered in Milwaukee last summer to DC for the first time.
“I’m eager to see where things are headed. I think tomorrow will set the pace. Some folks around the country had postponed due to weather, which I get, but I think we absolutely have to show resistance no matter what in this moment. Now is the time to inspire others. I guess I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be,” he told us.
DC locals are used to the lockdown brought on by an event like an inauguration: Secret Service and military police make getting around downtown slow and painful, mass transit services are interrupted without warning or explanation, and the general feeling of surveillance is at an uncomfortable high.
This time is different. The country’s political temperature is always more palpable in DC than outside of it, but after a tumultuous summer marred by political violence — and maybe because of it — the tension between those who are MAGA and those who are not is at a boiling point.
Even flying into DC’s airport was different. Flying from Minneapolis to Washington Reagan, TSA set up a second round of security during boarding. Agents checked IDs and searched bags at the gate, while group numbers were called. A Minneapolis TSA agent confirmed it was heightened security for the inauguration, but couldn’t answer which other airports, if any, had added the measure.
Press — or anybody not in Trump merchandise — were scarce today in the National Mall area. We found ourselves being overly cautious and polite in our interactions, sidestepping unwanted potential conflicts.
The dynamic didn’t go unnoticed.
“The media is getting a little better now,” the former VOA employee said, giving us a quick knowing look. “Elon Musk saved Twitter, and stuff like that. They’re all trying to get on the good side of Trump and stuff, so they’re being more balanced.”
