Washington is preparing for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week, with 30 miles (48 km) of black temporary fencing erected, security checkpoints set up for 25,000 law enforcement officers and hundreds of thousands of spectators.
The swearing-in on the steps of the US Capitol on Monday and a parade to the White House will be followed by protests by Trump’s opponents and parties and rallies by Republican supporters over the weekend.
The inauguration comes after a campaign that has been marked by two attempts on Trump’s life — including an attempt by a would-be assassin who shot him in the ear — and two attacks on ordinary Americans on New Year’s Day. In one, 14 people were killed and dozens were injured when a US Army veteran drove a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans. The same day, an active-duty U.S. Army soldier drove a Tesla Cybertruck into his car outside a Trump-branded hotel in Las Vegas, killing him.
“We are in a high-threat environment,” U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCollum said at a Monday press briefing.
The inauguration, when Trump will formally take the oath of office alongside members of Congress, the Supreme Court, his incoming administration and thousands of others, will take place on the Capitol steps in front of the Washington Monument.
This is the same location where, on January 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters broke windows, fought with police and lawmakers for their lives in an effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election to Democratic President Joe Biden. Forced to flee.
Trump’s 2024 election opponent, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, accepted her defeat in the November 5 contest, in contrast to Trump who continued to falsely claim that his defeat was the result of fraud.
fear of the lone wolf
Security officials said they were not aware of any specific, coordinated threat to the inauguration. What they’re worried about are lone wolves, like the New Orleans attackers, or two separate incidents last week. In one, a man was arrested for trying to bring a knife into the Capitol. On the other hand, according to the US Capitol Police, a person was arrested for trying to light a fire near the Capitol.
“The threat from a lone actor remains the greatest justification for us to remain at a state of alert throughout the next week,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said at a security briefing.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security on Monday warned police across the country about the risk of copycat attacks similar to the New Orleans incident.
A large portion of downtown Washington – stretching about 2 miles (3 km) from the White House to the Capitol – will be closed to vehicle traffic, with entry points blocked with concrete barriers, garbage trucks and other heavy objects. .
The 30-mile-long, 7-foot-high (2-meter-tall) black fence, which is not designed to be climbed, will be the longest fence ever built in Washington, officials said. About 7,800 National Guard troops and 4,000 officers brought in from other police departments across the country will reinforce security.
While some residents of the city, where 90% of voters voted for Harris rather than Trump, were prepared to leave for the holiday weekend or hunker down at home to avoid the standoff, thousands were expected to flock to the city. Celebration and protest.
About 70% of Washington’s 34,500 hotel rooms were booked for opening night and last week’s opening night, according to Smith Travel Research data shared with Reuters by Destination DC, Washington’s official tourism organization. Hotel occupancy was about 95% for Trump’s 2017 inauguration, and about 78% for former President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.
Marches and rallies
Trump’s 2017 inauguration was marked by massive protests and counter-protests. His former spokesman, Sean Spicer, began his tenure by claiming – contrary to photographic evidence – that the crowd on the grassy National Mall was “the largest audience ever to watch an inaugural event.”
The Women’s March the following day attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of Washington — and even more to pop-up solidarity events across the country.
Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said Monday that a much smaller crowd of 25,000 people is expected to attend the anti-Trump People’s March on D.C. on Saturday.
Thousands are expected to attend about a dozen other protests or rallies that have been permitted by local authorities between Saturday and Monday, including Trump’s rally at the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena on Sunday.
Juliet Kayyem, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who served as a Homeland Security official during the Obama administration, said officials appear to be following standard practice in planning for all possibilities.
“What you’re planning is a worst-case scenario, but I suspect you won’t be able to achieve it, which is just as well,” Qayyam said. “In terms of planning, it is always easier to move downwards than to move upward.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
