For the love of God and all that is holy I could not find a flight or a cheap ticket to Washington DC to cover the Inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. That meant packing my bags and hopping in the car to our nation’s capital to cover history in the making for the South Shore Press.
The journey was quite uneventful and quiet until news alerts started blowing up my phone: because of bitter cold temperatures the Inauguration would move inside to the Capitol.
Thankfully because of connections on Capitol Hill I had secured a pretty sweet seat to the 2025 Inauguration. These are tough to come by. A majority of the tickets to a Presidential Inauguration are actually “standing room” access along the Capitol behind the actual seats themselves.
They have color coded standing sections where people are packed in like pens. This is where I witnessed the Inauguration in 2016. Having worked politically for a member of Congress at the time, I knew what to expect so I bundled up, wore warm work boots, and looked more like I was headed to a construction job site rather than a Presidential Inauguration.
Others didn’t do their homework. Since you’re standing on grass and it rained a bit, the standing areas turned into a slippery mud pit. It was quite humorous to see some folks attempting to navigate the tough terrain wearing high heels, fur coats, and tuxedos.
The challenge in 2025 was the cold.
Being originally from Buffalo, New York, I was shocked at the move to an all indoor Inauguration. Keep in mind, we stand outside in far colder weather and more blustery conditions for ten hours at a time while tailgating and watching the Buffalo Bills battle on the gridiron. For us New Yorkers, standing outside in the cold is what we call “Monday.”
Folks are praising the move inside. I get it. People not used to standing outside for long periods of time can develop health issues or even frostbite, but do the math.
On Inauguration Day, people would have had to brave the elements for about four hours, counting time to get through security at the Capitol, then sit outside to watch the inauguration.
Moving rallies and festivities to the Capitol One Arena meant people were standing in line outside for 12-to-24 hours prior to secure a seat inside the 20,356 seat stadium.
On the Sunday rally temperatures hovered at exactly 33-degrees: one degree above freezing. A cold, hard rain pounded those standing in line. That was far worse than standing outside the Capitol for an outdoor Inauguration, but I digress.
As they say, necessity is the mother of all invention, so hundreds of thousands of people just “figured it out” for a Plan-B on how to watch the Inauguration in and around Washington, DC.
Getting around was impossible by foot or car. The Secret Service and Washington DC police put the entire city in lockdown, literally. Massive, iron gates wrapped around city streets, blocking foot and vehicular traffic anywhere around Washington. For the few places you could get by on foot “inside the perimeter” you had to go through not one but two Secret Service checkpoints.
Most people found a bar close to them and simply watched on TV.
At the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, once owned by President Trump, hundreds of people gathered around the bar television sets to watch the moment on TV, while more than 1,000 people stayed in the basement ballroom as part of the National Day of Prayer.
We’re told even high level Trump appointees and members of Congress were given the boot from the Capitol to accommodate foreign dignitaries.
I was blessed beyond belief to have secured invitation only tickets to numerous balls, awards luncheons, breakfast gatherings, and receptions in around Washington to round out my Inauguration 2025 experience.
Trust me, it wasn’t fun and games since I was quarterbacking the South Shore Press’s team coverage of the Inauguration. My small tripod, wireless microphones, and iphone were at my side every second of the weekend to capture moments for our social media (@SSPNewsroom on Twitter) and our website: SouthShorePress.com.
Now that the Inauguration is behind us, the South Shore Press moves forward in our coverage of the new President, and how it impacts you and your family on the South Shore.