Hopeful and optimistic before the 2024 presidential election, my family booked a hotel room in Washington, DC, for the weekend of January 20, 2025, hoping to watch the inauguration of the first female president of the United States. When we booked it, we agreed that no matter the result of November 5th, we would go. The room was, after all, nonrefundable. When the result in question became clear, our resolve held. We packed our bags and loaded the car before setting out for Donald Trump’s inauguration weekend in Washington, DC.
Although the ceremony was on Monday the 20th, Trump’s supporters began celebrating days earlier. Getting to lunch on Sunday afternoon was difficult, as we ran into Trump’s pre-inauguration rally. Thousands of people lined the streets for blocks, trying to get into Capital One Arena. We were surrounded by tables full of merchandise covered in American flags, eagles, and Trump’s face. Notable mentions include a t-shirt with a photo of Trump giving two middle fingers and the words “You Missed,” as well as a towel showing Trump in front of the White House with “Daddy’s Home” in large red letters. Supporters were holding signs plastered with everything from “Repent or Perish,” to “Homosexuality” crossed out, to “Face Diapers Not Required.”
The next day was Monday — the big day. The streets were filled with chants and a buzz you could hear blocks away. Although the official inauguration was held inside the Capitol Building’s main rotunda, twenty thousand people secured seats in Capital One Arena, where they watched the inaugural ceremony on the Jumbotrons before Trump flew on Air Force One to address them in person. Everyone else congregated in the sub-freezing temperatures, in the company of those with whom they agreed. As camera crews swarmed the masses, interviewees could be overheard speaking about how “freeing” it felt to not have to hide their political beliefs, as many did in their home states.
The other overwhelmingly common sentiment was one of “unity.” Almost every conversation touched on the excitement of uniting the country under one president. One man we overheard being interviewed remarked that he was looking forward to “law and order, bringing the world back to normal, I guess, I don’t really know how to-” before settling on “unity” as his response. When asked about the theme of his inauguration, Trump himself told reporters, “Unity. It’s going to be a message of unity.”
Unfortunately, Trump’s inaugural speech is widely regarded as one of the most incendiary in history. As Tim O’Brien of Bloomberg News writes, “Trump’s second [inaugural address] was embroidered with images of a weakened and threatened America to unspooled and trapped that only the miraculous might save it.” BBC described his speech as “a laundry list of policy promises and actions he would take in the first 100 days,” including declaring a national emergency surrounding immigration at America’s southern border. In his speech, Trump also promised to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars,” invoking a phrase tied to the colonization, devastation and genocide of North American Indigenous nations.
Brandon Tensley of Capital B News calls the cries for unity “hollow.” He goes on to emphasize that “These empty calls for comity also downplay the political violence and racial tensions that the former president and his allies have inflamed, and smother valid criticism of the party.”
When storming the Capitol is seen as acceptable, almost anything else goes. Somebody stood at the front of the World War I memorial waving a German flag. The Proud Boys, a gorup labeled by many as terrorists, flew banners reading “Proud Boys Did Nothing Wrong.” People held signs reading “Same-Sex Marriage → Hell.” The largest cry of Trump’s speech erupted at his statement, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.” People were much more willing to act out because others were — because their president does.
In times of uncertainty, people often turn to powerful figures for a sense of security. For many Trump supporters, this means deification. The night before the Iowa caucus, Trump shared a video, beginning with the line, “God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God gave us Trump.” Since then, there have been numerous examples of what NPR calls Trump’s “Messiah Complex,” or self-deification. Many of his Christian supporters have bought into the idea, thinking that America’s increasing secularization poses a threat to the unification of Church and state. After the first assassination attempt on Trump’s life, he spoke to a crowd in Florida, telling them, “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason, and that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.”
Although a strategy Trump already used before the assassination attempts, this became one of the most prominent messages of Trump’s campaign: that he was sent by Heaven to rid us of the Leftist Evil. As Aleem Maqbool of BBC put it, “Millions of Americans felt guided by their faith to support the former, and now future, president.” Hank Kunneman, an Evangelical pastor, described Trump’s campaign as “The Anointing.” This deification was on full display on the streets of DC during inauguration weekend. Signs and shirts declaring his “resurrection” and “second coming” were plentiful, as were pictures of Trump with a bandage over his ear, fist in the air. Prayers could be heard through loudspeakers, asking God to protect our country and our president. During his speech, Trump claimed, “I was saved by God to make America great again,” further pushing his own deification. This begs the question of what we Americans want to follow: a president or a God?
Attending the 2025 Inauguration felt somewhat dystopian, yet also realer than life. It’s easy to ignore what is on your phone or TV. However, that does not mean it’s not happening. Facing the ideas of those with whom you disagree is crucial to understanding how others form their opinions. I do not agree with the vast majority of the ideas I encountered, but I gained a deeper understanding of the Republican party by being amongst its most ardent supporters, an experience and understanding I will bring with me into discussions for the rest of my life.
(All images provided by Adia Stokes)
