The streets of downtown Washington, that simulation of the center of a city in which skyscrapers are prohibited by law, were transformed this Monday morning into one of those dozens, hundreds of locations that in the last two years and throughout the country They hosted rallies of then-candidate Donald Trump. There were the red caps, the alarmist messages about the progress of the country and the stands. merchandising always up to date with the latest news, like those t-shirts in which the new president was seen with the White House in the background and the message “Dad is back” or the hats that changed, perhaps a little prematurely, the classic Trumpist motto of Make America Great Again for America is Great Again.
But above all, there were the tens of thousands of supporters from all over the country, who traveled to the capital to participate in the party in the open air of the National Mall, but had to wait in line for hours to maybe, just maybe, get in. in a basketball stadium from which to follow the historic day.
The fault was the forecast of the polar cold that hit the capital and that forced, for the first time in 40 years, to transfer the pomp of his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States, his triumphant return to the White House four years later, inside the Capitol, a building that thousands of his supporters stormed on January 6, 2021, determined not to admit the leader’s defeat at the polls.
Temperatures did not drop as much as expected, and the mood among those crowding the streets around Capitol One stadium, where Trump was scheduled to address after being sworn in at 11:47 sharp (note the numerical wink, which could not comply, due to delays), was very different this time. There was euphoria, but also resignation and a point of disappointment given that many of them, the majority, were going to be left out.
According to the organizers of the event, 220,000 free tickets were distributed through senators and congressmen or local organizations of the Republican Party for whoever wanted to come to celebrate what the new vice president, JD Vance, who also took office this Monday, defined in the night of the electoral victory as “the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States.” But in the Washington sports center, where on Friday it was decided to improvise a stage for the consolation prize and so that Trump could take another mass bath, there is only room for about 20,000 people.
So there were those who had been waiting in line since the night before, a freezing night, in which the thermometers dropped to almost minus 10 degrees, although they would have started waiting earlier, if it hadn’t been for the fact that on Sunday afternoon Trump gave a rally there. same place. And there were those who tried to enter without success both times, like Theresa Curry, who had traveled from Florida by car (about 14 hours) and on Sunday waited and waited during a snowfall that caused the Mall to dawn slightly white on Monday. .
From all over the country
There were people coming from all corners of the country, from California or central Missouri; from Tucson (Arizona) or Kansas. From everyone except, apparently, Washington, which supported the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, with 92% of the votes, and preferred to dedicate the day as a holiday (for the third time in history, the inauguration coincided with the holiday that celebrates the legacy of Martin Luther King) to other tasks, such as spending the day elsewhere.
Among those who had arrived for the celebration, certainties were missed, while the queue, which snaked around itself through several streets, moved between the fences after the doors opened, shortly before 8:00, and the widespread misinformation. One guy said the line stretched four or five miles long: fake news). Another, that there were about 400,000 people who wanted to access the stadium (more fake news).
And more than one regretted not having known before about the change of plans. Travis Hopkins, from Ohio, would have canceled the Airbnb if it had been possible to do so without penalty, while Jacqueline Muñoz had no choice but to continue as planned, because the news that the inauguration was being moved inside the Capitol and that the tickets became, according to the organization of the event, “souvenirs of a great day for the United States,” they jumped out while Muñoz was on board the plane with which he crossed the vast country.
ANNA ROSE LAYDEN (EFE)
After eight in the morning, Joseph Smith took his wife, Samantha, by the hand, and they both got lost through the deserted streets in search of a bar, where they could follow everything on TV, “order some beers and light up like a tree.” Christmas.” There was also a lot to celebrate for Steve Scanlon, who has been selling Trump-related products “since 2016.” When asked what he expected from the new president, he said: “He will fix everything.”
Inside, the lucky crowd followed everything on the stadium scoreboard screens, organized around an empty stage on which they installed, in a theatrical gesture that was not surprising knowing the character, a desk so that Trump, once sworn in as president, position, could get to work, and sign, before a passionate public, the dozens of executive orders on his first day in the Oval Office, which promise to turn the United States upside down and undo the legacy of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, on a corner near the sports center, a homeless man was playing the American anthem with a harmonica connected to a toy megaphone in exchange for alms. Soon, a group of members of the extremist Proud Boys militia, whose leaders are in jail for their involvement in the attack on the Capitol – although, if Trump keeps his promises, not for long – gathered on the sidewalk of opposite. Under the watchful eye of the police and looking like bar thugs, they shouted: “The streets are ours!”
Welcome to a new era of American history.
