Cold, cloudy and barricaded, the U.S. capital is under a security blanket ahead of the 58th presidential inauguration on Friday when Republican Donald Trump will take oath as the 45th President of the country. More than a million people are expected to arrive in the city, an estimated one fourth of them to protest against the incoming President.
Nearly seven sq. km area around the White House and the U.S. Capitol will be closed to motorists on Friday, as the inaugural ceremony and the parade in the afternoon are in the open. Mr. Trump is expected to walk at least part of the 1.9-mile long parade from the Capitol to the White House, which will take 90 minutes.
A Washington Post report said 15 army horses that will be in the parade were getting special training to put up with the noise and disturbances that they are not used to. Several roads and parks in the vicinity have already been shut, and the general public will have to use the metro rail, which will run from 4 a.m. to midnight on Friday.
The oath taking ceremony will take place at the West Front of the Capitol building, on a temporarily built platform that overlooks the Washington Monument 1.8 km away. The crowd will gather in the National Mall, between the Monument and the Capitol, watching the event on 11 LED screens, each two stories high and three stories wide.
Drawn from at least three dozen security agencies, 28,000 personnel will manage the security arrangements. Other than potential terror threat, the presence of at least 60 protest groups in the vicinity makes security a big challenge.
In 2009, the first inauguration of President Barack Obama began while the security agencies were still trying to neturalise an identified terror threat. Mr. Obama arrived at the ceremony with two prepared speeches — the customary inaugural address of the new President and a second one in case of an evacuation.
The transition team has said Mr. Trump will place his hand on two Bibles while taking oath — one which Abraham Lincoln used for his first oath in 1861, and a second one that Mr. Trump received as a gift from his mother. Though it is not a constitutional requirement, most Presidents till date have taken the oath on a Bible. The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court will administer the oath of office to Mr. Trump.
In unusual situations, these customs have been ignored. For instance, when Lyndon B. Johnson took his first oath of office on November 22, 1963 — on Air Force One two hours after the assassination of John F. Kennedy — there wasn’t a Bible available. A Catholic prayer book found in Kennedy’s room in the plane was used. And a federal judge available immediately presided over the oath taking.
Mr. Obama also used the Lincoln Bible in 2009, which is now kept in the Library of Congress.
Worship service
In the morning, Mr. Trump will attend a worship service, which has been the tradition. He is likely to go to the St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House. After the worship, the President-elect will meet the President at the White House for coffee. The President will accompany the President-elect to the Capitol.
The ceremony, to begin at 11:30 a.m., has moved indoors several times in the past, either due to cold weather or due to illness of the President-elect. On Friday, the weather is predicted to be cloudy and chilly, but not extreme. There could be rains in the afternoon, during the parade.
Six religious leaders, including a Catholic cardinal and black and Hispanic Protestant leaders, will read from the Bible and pray. A Jewish rabbi will also offer prayers, a first since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985. Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan has said he will be reading Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 9, where the king seeks guidance to lead Israel.
After the oath, which will take place exactly at noon on Friday, Mr. Trump will make his inaugural address, which will be his first as President. Inaugural addresses are usually brief. Mr. Trump’s inauguration ceremony is on the theme of ‘Make America Great Again’, his election slogan, and his address is also likely to be around that.
