CHRIS CRUCIAL: 3 reasons Trump moved his inauguration inside 🥶
PLUS: ANOTHER new Senator!
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1. The Indoor Inauguration
For the first time since 1985, the presidential inauguration will take place indoors — in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda — on Monday.
The reason, according to the man who will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, is because it’s supposed to be really damn cold:
Which, unlike lots of Trump’s other pronouncements on Truth Social is, well, true!
Here’s my man Jason Samenow of the Washington Post explaining just how cold it’s going to be:
Temperatures early Monday will hover in the mid- to upper teens and will only slowly rise into the low 20s by noon, when the swearing-in ceremony takes place.
Winds will be sustained at 10 to 20 mph, with gusts of 20 to 35 mph. That will make it feel about 10 degrees colder than the actual air temperature. If a gust surpasses 28 mph (reached during Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration) at noon, it will mark the strongest inaugural gust since the 35 mph measured at Reagan’s 1985 inauguration.
Inaugural gust!
I will tell you that I have been in temperatures like that during an inauguration before. It was the first inauguration of Barack Obama and it was in the high 20s. Coldest I have ever been. I stood on a press riser to the right of the stage from 6 am until 2 pm. BRUTAL. Couldn’t feel my feet until midnight that night.
So, there’s no question that the weather did play a role in this decision. But, it wasn’t the only reason why the inauguration was moved inside. I’ve got two other reasons that I think led Trump to go indoors.
Let’s go through them.
Crowd Size: Remember that the first controversy of Trump’s first term was over the size of the crowd that gathered — outside — for his inauguration. Despite the photo evidence being clear (see below) that Trump’s crowd was nowhere near the size of the crowd for Barack Obama’s first inauguration, the president made his press secretary tell reporters that it was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.” (Sean Spicer later said he regretted making those comments.)
(Obama crowd on left, Trump on right/Photo via Washington Post) Trump is (and always been) obsessed with crowd size — every crowd at his every one of his campaign rallies was the biggest ever — and you can bet your entire mortgage on the fact that he was worried about not enough people showing up on Monday in DC because of the frigid forecast.
Putting it inside takes the crowd size conversation totally off the table — as the swearing-in ceremony will take place in the Capitol Rotunda that probably can seat only a few hundred people.
Safety: It’s worth remembering that Trump was the target of not one but two assassination attempts during the course of the general election campaign. And that both of those incidents happened outside (one at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the other at Trump’s golf course in Florida.)
The Secret Service told Trump that they couldn’t guarantee his protection on the golf course — and he stopped playing after the September 15 assassination attempt.
Ditto large campaign rallies outside. Following the July assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, the Secret Service urged Trump to stop holding rallies outdoors out of fear for his safety.
Given those two assassination attempts, you can be sure that the Secret Service was not looking forward to ensuring Trump’s safety right outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday — and almost certainly were relieved when he decided to move it inside.
Inside we go! I don’t assume the change of venue will alter all that much — although I bet Trump’s speech is longer than it might have been in the freezing temps.
2. Meet your newest Senator (again)!
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted will be the next Senator from Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Friday afternoon.
“I believe and know that Jon is prepared to be United States senator from the state of Ohio,” DeWine said. “The U.S. Senate rewards hard workers. It rewards those who master the facts. It rewards those who focus on getting things done.”
Husted as long seen as the favorite to be DeWine’s choice to replace JD Vance, who will be sworn in Monday as vice president. In recent days, however, there had been speculation that Vivek Ramaswamy, the failed 2024 presidential candidate, might be the pick.
Ramaswamy was “lobbying like hell” for the gig in recent days, according to Politico. In the wake of the Husted news, those close to Ramaswamy let it be known he will run for the state’s open governorship in 2026.
Husted has been in statewide office in Ohio for almost two decades. He spent eight years as Ohio’s Secretary of State before being elected lieutenant governor in 2018 and reelected to that role in 2022.
Husted was widely expected to run for governor. But Vance’s victory opened up the Senate seat — an opportunity no politician (or very few) would pass up. Husted will have to run in 2026 for the remaining two years of Vance’s term and, if he wins, will be up for a full six-year-term in 2028.
My initial sense is that Husted will face little opposition from within his own party for the 2026 nomination — although appointed senators have a very mixed record of electoral success.
Republicans — led by Ramaswamy — are likely to be much more focused on the open governor’s mansion, with a number of high-profile candidates likely to run.
3. Friday AMA
Every Friday, I spend an hour (or so) taking questions on literally anything and everything over at YouTube. If you missed today’s episode, never fear! You can watch the whole thing right here. And make sure to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel to get all of the video content I am making over there!
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
“Disappointment.” — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on the Supreme Court decision banning TikTok
ONE GOOD CHART
What did voters like most about Joe Biden’s presidency? His decision not to run again. Oomph. (Via Data for Progress)
SONG OF THE DAY
Regular readers know I love ambient music. We got two GREAT new ambient albums this week. “Something Ephemeral” by Alaskan Tapes and “Weft” by Blue Lake. This is the title track off the new Blue Lake album.
How tf is MAGA going to take over Greenland if Washington is too cold for them to stand outside?
OK. I get he doesn't want people to be out in the cold for too long and getting "hurt". But he didn't care if people got hurt in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The hypocrisy is appalling. Just saying. All of a sudden he's Mr. Compassion. The real reason is he doesn't want to freeze his butt off being outside.