Sub-freezing temperatures forecast for Monday in Washington are prompting President-elect Donald Trump to take the oath of office from inside the Capitol Rotunda.
Almost everyone visiting Washington won’t be able to see it in person.
The decision to move Monday’s event indoors marks the first time in 40 years that a president will not be sworn in on the Capitol steps.
Plans are underway to accommodate some attendees at the city’s pro basketball and hockey arena.
The Rotunda is prepared as an alternative for each inauguration in the event of inclement weather.
The swearing-in was last moved indoors in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan began his second term. Monday’s forecast calls for the lowest Inauguration Day temperatures since that day.
President Joe Biden, members of Congress and other dignitaries and notable guests will be able to view the ceremony from inside the Capitol.
Workers were installing a small platform in the Rotunda on Friday.
The US Capitol Police said on Friday that outside ticketed areas at the Capitol would be closed “due to the extremely cold weather,” so even if people wanted to gather there as Trump takes the oath inside, they won’t be allowed to do so.
The National Weather Service is predicting that the temperature will be around minus 6°C at noon Eastern time, when Trump becomes president. That would be the coldest since Reagan’s second inauguration saw temperatures plunge to minus 14°C.
“The weather forecast for Washington DC, with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way.”
In 2009, it was minus 2°C for President Barack Obama’s swearing-in.
Biden was sworn in four years ago in a relatively balmy 5.5°C.
A few Democrats poked fun at Trump’s decision. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in the Democrats’ losing 2024 campaign, posted a photo of himself standing in a snowstorm with the caption, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.”
In his social media post about the weather-related change, Trump said that “various Dignitaries and Guests” would be taken into the Rotunda for the ceremony, although it’s unclear how many people that meant, or whom.
According to a notice from the US House’s sergeant at arms sent to congressional offices, the vast majority of the seats that had been planned for an outdoor ceremony will be excluded and those tickets will become “commemorative.” Organisers are still deciding whether they can admit people who have tickets in sections 3 and 4, which would have been right in front of the stage outdoors.
Associated Press
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