Overview

The Inauguration of Donald Trump is a public ceremony in which Donald Trump commences his four-year term as the 45th President of the United States, taking place on the West Front of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. January 20th, 2017.

Background

Planning for the inauguration ceremony began on September 21st, 2016. On December 19th, Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence were formally elected to office by the Electoral College, which was certified by a joint session of Congress on January 6th, 2017.

Developments

Demonstrations and Boycotts

On November 9th, 2016, a Facebook^[1] event page was created for a demonstration in protest of Trump's inauguration titled "Women's March on Washington," during which participants plan to walk from the Lincoln Memortial to the White House on the morning of January 21st, 2017. Within two months, the event gathered upwards of 200,000 "going" RSVPs.

Additionally, total of 65 Democratic United States Representatives announced they would be boycotting the event. On January 16th, Project Veritas published a video claiming to be hidden camera footage showing members of the activist group DisruptJ20 planning to stink bomb Trump's inauguration (shown below).

On January 19th, Twitter user @RyanAFournier^[7] tweeted a photograph of a man holding up a bloodied hand, claiming his friend had been attacked by an anti-Trump protester. Within 24 hours, the post garnered more than 2,000 retweets and 1,800 likes.

That evening, an anti-Trump protest was held in New York City, which was attended by celebrities Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin and Robert DeNiro (shown below).

Viral Protest Signs

The Women's March that took place after the inauguration was a global event, with hundreds of thousands of protestors taking the streets in major cities across the world. Signs from the event went viral for their cleverness. Dozens of major news outlets posted galleries of some of the best signs from the march.^[9][10][11] Some of the most popular signs are shown below.

Performances

On December 20th, 2016, Page Six^[3] reported that Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli would not be performing at the inauguration because he feared a backlash from Trump's critics. Other artists who refused to perform include Celine Dion, Charlotte Church, Elton John, Moby, Rebecca Ferguson, Garth Brooks and Kiss.

Performers that have been confirmed for the event include Jackie Evancho, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, The Rockettes, 3 Doors Down, Sam Moore, Toby Keith, Lee Greenwood, The Piano Guys, DJ Ravidrums, Big & Rich, the Talladega College Tornado Marching Band and The Frontmen of Country.

RT Suspension

On January 18th, 2017, Gizmodo^[2] announced that Facebook had banned the Russian news organization RT from posting articles, photos and videos on the social networking platform until after Trump's inauguration, claiming they ran a pirated stream of Obama's press conference. The following day, Facebook lifted the ban, stating that RTs page had been restored.^[2]

Desk Photograph

On January 18th, 2017, Trump tweeted a photograph of himself holding a pen and pad of paper while seated at a desk, stating that he was “writing my inaugural address at the Winter White House” (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 90,000 likes and 19,000 retweets. Additionally, many Twitter users began mocking the photo, claiming he was seated at a reception desk and holding a black marker.

CNN "Designated Survivor" Segment

On January 18th, 2017, CNN was criticized for airing a segment titled "Who is 'designated survivor' at inauguration?", which revealed that an Obama appointee could become president if Trump died during the inauguration, although the report admitted there were no specific threats targeting the inauguration ceremony (shown below).

Online Reactions

On January 19th, Twitter user Jesse McLaren posted an edited clip of the pre-inauguration welcome concert, which dubbed over the song ""All Star"": by Smash Mouth during a performance by the band 3 Doors Down (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 68,000 likes and 41,000 retweets.

On January 20th, #InaugurationDay^[4], #ThankYouObamas^[5] and "Mourning in America"^[6] became a trending topics on Twitter. Meanwhile, an thread for the inauguration was stickied to the top of 4chan's /pol/ board (shown below).^[8]

Ceremony

On January 20th, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States and Mike Pence was sworn in as Vice President.

Attendance

During the inauguration, several media outlets posted a side-by-side photos comparing President Obama's inauguration in 2009 to Trump's at the same time of day. In the image, Trump's crowd is considerably smaller.^[12]

While no official attendance count for Trump's inauguration has been released, the issue has been a point of contention in the news, as Trump's administration has tried to say their inauguration was the most highly attended in history.^[13] This led to the #AlternativeFacts / #SpicerFacts hashtags, in which users tell outright lies with the hashtag to mock the Trump administration.

Attendance Memes

The interest in the stark difference in the crowd photo has led to the creation of photoshopped images in which a third famous crowd from either history or fiction is compared to the crowds of Trump and Obama's inauguration.

Christmas Celebration Attendance

On November 30th, 2017, the Trump White House held a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. According to ABC reporter Sam Sweeney,^[14] the event is usually crowded. However, Sweeney tweeted a picture taken by ABC meteorologist Steve Rudin showing rows upon rows of empty seats at the event. The tweet gained 14,000 retweets and 27,000 likes (shown below, left). Rudin's tweet^[15] gained similar numbers (shown below, right)

The photo went viral and reminded many of Trump's inauguration, which was also not as densely populated as it had been for inaugurations of other presidents, though Trump famously denied that. Twitter user @SpinDr^[16] tweeted a comparison of Trump's tree-lighting ceremony to Barack Obama's, which was significantly more populated (shown below, left). Twitter user @WeinsteinLaw made a similar joke, saying to "NOT" show Trump the comparison unless you wanted to make him mad

Search Interest

External References