A frosty presidential inauguration? Trump moves ceremony indoors

US President-elect Donald Trump faces one of the coldest inauguration days in modern history when he is sworn in Monday.

Snow blankets the US Capitol, the site of Donald Trump’s inauguration, on January 6 [J Scott Applewhite/AP Photo]

Published On 17 Jan 202517 Jan 2025

Faced with an icy polar vortex, United States President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to move his upcoming inauguration ceremony indoors.

Traditionally, the ceremony has taken place outdoors, most commonly on the marble steps of the Capitol in Washington, DC.

But with meteorologists predicting one of the coldest inauguration days in recent history, Trump decided on Friday that safety mandated a slight venue change.

“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social.

“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours.”

Trump’s ceremony, scheduled for Monday, will now take place beneath the Capitol Rotunda, its curved sandstone walls covered with paintings from American history.

Cosimos Cendo, of Washington, DC, skis down Main Street in Annapolis, Maryland, on January 6 [Susan Walsh/AP Photo]

Only one other president has been sworn in under the Capitol dome inside the rotunda: Trump’s fellow Republican Ronald Reagan.

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Reagan’s second inauguration, in 1985, was also one of the coldest, even surpassing the freezing temperatures projected for Monday. The weather hovered around -14 degrees Celsius, or just 7 degrees Fahrenheit, with the wind chill making the air feel even colder.

For Monday, the National Weather Service is projecting temperatures to peak at a frosty -6 degrees Celsius, of 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

Trump compared his situation to Reagan’s in Friday’s social media post. He also addressed the question of capacity in such a confined space as the rotunda.

Roughly 250,000 guests had tickets to watch the inauguration near and around the Capitol steps, under the original plan.

Trump confirmed that “various Dignitaries and Guests” would still join him in the rotunda to witness the ceremony in person.

“This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!” Trump wrote.

But other in-person attendees were encouraged to go to the Capitol One Arena, where the inauguration would be streamed live.

“I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In,” Trump added. He plans to have a “victory rally” there as well on Sunday.

The US Capitol has hosted inaugurations on 55 separate occasions, with 34 ceremonies happening on the East Portico, a colonnade on the outside of the building.

Relatively few have happened indoors, but when the ceremony has moved inside, the Senate chamber and the House of Representatives have both been used as a backdrop.

Cold weather has wreaked havoc on past ceremonies that have unfolded outdoors. In 1873, for instance, President Ulysses Grant had military servicemembers collapse around him, and the icy winds made his speech difficult to hear.

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And historians speculate how much damp conditions on inauguration day contributed to the death of William Henry Harrison, who caught pneumonia and died only a month into his presidency.

His inaugural address was the longest in US history — and his time in office, the shortest.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies