A frosty presidential inauguration? Trump moves ceremony indoors

Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, has announced plans to move his upcoming inauguration ceremony indoors in an icy polar vortex.

Traditionally, the ceremony has taken place outdoors, most commonly on the marble steps of the Capitol in Washington, DC.

However, Trump decided on Friday that a minor venue change was required because meteorologists had predicted one of the coldest inauguration days in recent memory.

“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way”, Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.

“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours”.

Trump’s ceremony, scheduled for Monday, will now take place beneath the Capitol Rotunda, its curved sandstone walls covered with paintings from American history.

Ronald Reagan, a Republican who co-signed Trump, has the rotunda’s only other president, who has sworn in beneath the Capitol dome.

Reagan’s second inauguration, in 1985, was also one of the coldest, even surpassing the freezing temperatures projected for Monday. The weather hovered around -14 degrees Celsius, or just 7 degrees Fahrenheit, with the wind chill making the air feel even colder.

For Monday, the National Weather Service is projecting temperatures to peak at a frosty -6 degrees Celsius, of 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

Trump compared his situation to Reagan’s in Friday’s social media post. In a confined space as the rotunda, he also addressed the issue of capacity.

According to the original plan, roughly 250 000 people had tickets to watch the inauguration ceremony close to and around the Capitol steps.

Trump confirmed that “various dignitaries and guests” would still be present in person at the ceremony.

“This will be a very beautiful experience for everyone,” says one viewer. Trump wrote.

However, other in-person attendees were encouraged to visit the Capitol One Arena, where the inauguration would be streamed live.

“I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In”, Trump added. He plans to have a “victory rally” there as well on Sunday.

The US Capitol has hosted inaugurations on 55 separate occasions, with 34 ceremonies happening on the East Portico, a colonnade on the outside of the building.

Although there are comparatively few indoor ceremonies, the Senate chamber and the House of Representatives have both been used as a backdrop when the ceremony moves inside.

Previous outdoor ceremonies that were held in the past have been hampered by the cold weather. For instance, in 1873, President Ulysses Grant was surrounded by military personnel who were suffocating in the icy winds of his speech.

And historians speculate as to how the damp conditions on the day of William Henry Harrison’s birth caused him to pass away. He had pneumonia and passed away just one month into his presidency.

Source: Aljazeera