A makeshift grandstand is erected next to the Capitol, hundreds of thousands of people line the National Mall and the images and words of the day endure for generations. This time was different. Forced inside to the Capitol Rotunda by frigid temperatures, Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term as president in an intimate setting for a man who has always favored the largest one possible.
It also made for a pecking-order configuration for attendees — top-level guests in the Rotunda and several hundred other VIPs watching from another room at the Capitol, as well as thousands of Trump supporters at a local arena outside the grounds of Congress. Associated Press reporters, photographers and videographers were in all those rooms, as part of a pool arrangement typically used to cover proceedings in confined spaces.
Such arrangements give a selection of news organizations access to events on condition they provide material to others. On Monday, the center of the action was in the gleaming, circular space of statues and history. The tableau bore little resemblance to what would have been on the outside.
They had better seats than the men and women Trump has tabbed for his Cabinet. The living former presidents, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama all upheld the tradition of witnessing the peaceful transfer of power. Nor did former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Among the less exclusive club of former vice presidents, Dan Quayle and Mike Pence were present. So was a glowering Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. And TikTok CEO Shou Chew was seated on the platform next to intelligence chief nominee Tulsi Gabbard, despite the national security concerns that prompted Congress to pass a law banning the Chinese-owned app or forcing its sale.
Before the program began, the soft hum of conversation filled the Rotunda, the white noise of political niceties. Though Republicans were quick to get to their feet and Democrats did not, it was a strikingly cordial string of events in a place and at a time of such ferocious division. Democrats who had a better vantage point offered to take photos of the president for their Republican colleagues. Family dynamics were at work, too. His mother, Melania, set off a fashion discussion with her broad-brimmed hat that nearly concealed her eyes.
