When President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office on Monday inside a tightly packed Capitol Rotunda, he will be surrounded by a very different Washington than he was eight years ago. Back then, when Trump gave a speech about “American carnage” on the inaugural stage in the rain, many congressional Republicans were silently prepared to push back on the most radical elements of his agenda and investigate his background. Today, they are almost unanimously backing him. World leaders and corporate CEOs who once balked at Trump were scheduled to attend the ceremony, prepared to brave the bitter cold to publicly show their support before events were moved inside.
It is also a far different Washington from four years ago, when the stage built for Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration had to be hastily repaired after an insurrection of Trump’s supporters just two weeks beforehand. The rioters tore pieces off the scaffolding to use as weapons against police who tried to stop them from breaking into the Capitol and halting the certification of Biden’s victory. The Rotunda was packed then, too, as rioters violently rushed in after breaking through the main doors. They hung off statues, called out for lawmakers, and battled police who were trying to push them out of the building.
