New Delhi: Tech billionaires, his family members, Supreme Court justices and former presidents—these were the VIPs given prime seating at President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington DC Monday.
The swearing-in ceremony was held inside the US Capitol Rotunda due to the cold, offering cramped seating for a select number, while many other invitees with tickets were shunted to an overflow room to watch the event on video.
Over 220,000 tickets were distributed when the ceremony was expected to be held outdoors, while only 800 could be seated in the Rotunda.
Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had a prime spot, seated right in front of the speakers’ podium. The other representatives of the Quad—the Japanese and Australian foreign ministers—were seated two rows behind him.
Moving the inauguration indoors had the twin effect of obscuring notable absences like Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while simultaneously overcrowding the Rotunda—a marked departure from the visibly-empty stands at Trump’s first inauguration in 2016.
Before the event began, as guests filtered in, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, and Jeff Bezos mingled with each other to the sound of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World playing in the background.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, took his place in the row in front of them as This World is My World played. The seating choices signalled the kind of administration Trump is expected to lead: one in which money, expertise, and loyalty call the shots.
Money and power
The historic guest list that assembled at former President Carter’s funeral reunited at the presidential inauguration, with five presidents—Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton—seated together.
The bonhomie they displayed was replaced by a more solemn stance during Trump’s inaugural address—except for a few stifled laughs by Bush and incredulous looks from Clinton. Trump wasted no time in heavily criticising the Biden administration while Biden and Kamala Harris looked on, listing several issues including the failure to mitigate the recent wildfires in California.
“Some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in this country are sitting here right now—they don’t have a home anymore. That’s interesting,” he said.
Behind him sat members of his family, incoming cabinet members, and tech CEOs, including Musk, Amazon’s Bezos, Google’s Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Despite the lack of space in the Rotunda, both Bezos’s fiancé Lauren Sanchez and Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan were given seats on the dais behind Trump.
Mukesh and Neeta Ambani were also in the Rotunda, as were some of Trump’s loudest supporters, like Fox News host Tucker Carlson and now-disbarred lawyer and former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani. Hard-right politician Marjorie Taylor Greene was also present. The President of FIFA and the CEO of UFC were also inside.
Those who didn’t make the cut included the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, who watched from the Emancipation Hall, set up as an overflow room. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was also in the overflow room with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, as were boxer Conor McGregor and influencer Logan Paul.
Indoor vs outdoor
The second inauguration was very different from Trump’s first, during which he had given an angry speech on a rainy morning to largely empty stands.
This time, he addressed a crowd of some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people packed into the Rotunda. The relatively quiet mood indoors was in stark contrast to a much larger crowd going wild at the nearby Capital One Arena, where most of his supporters had gathered.
It was this crowd that Trump’s speech addressed: loud cheers erupted whenever he took a pause, and there were boos whenever the camera focused on Trump’s detractors—including his former vice-president Mike Pence.
However, despite rumours, Trump didn’t directly address the audience watching in either the Emancipation Hall or the Capital One Arena. He briefly told the audience in the Emancipation Hall that they were a “younger, far more beautiful audience” than the one he just spoke to inside the Rotunda.
Before heading to lunch, Trump signed a few documents at the Capitol, including one that said all US flags should be flown at full-staff, even during periods of mourning when it’s usually half-mast—likely because of Carter’s recent death.
Trump then attended a three-course luncheon at the Statuary Hall, where he was joined by Vice-President J.D. Vance, congressional leaders, Supreme Court justices, tech CEOs and other dignitaries. None of the former presidents attended the luncheon. Only 240 seats were set—Zuckerberg and his wife were relegated to a table in the corner, while Bezos and his fiancé were seated just in front of the head banquet table.
The menu reportedly included Chesapeake crab cakes, Greater Omaha Angus ribeye steak, and Minnesota apple ice box terrine, each paired with a wine sourced from the US (one from Virginia and two from California).
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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