On Friday, Donald Trump announced that Monday’s inaugural festivities will move indoors to the Capitol Rotunda due to the expected cold temperatures in Washington. It will be the first inauguration held indoors since Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural in 1985.
“The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows. There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th.”
January 20th cannot come fast enough! Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen. It is my obligation to protect the People of our Country but, before we even begin, we have to think of…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 17, 2025
A surprising voice made fun of Trump’s decision: Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota and the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year. In an X post, over a photo of himself giving a speech in the snow, Walz stated, “There’s no bad weather, just bad clothing.”
There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. https://t.co/t4EIhA31n0 pic.twitter.com/vndLPf4Bot
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) January 17, 2025
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Judging by the clothes Walz is wearing, the picture appears to be from Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign announcement in February of 2019. Minnesota politicians are known for flouting their tolerance for the cold, and Klobuchar famously gave her announcement speech outside in the snow:
Amy Klobuchar’s campaign announcement could’ve used a Tauntaun. pic.twitter.com/v8pV5wvM51
— Aaron D Lewis (@aarondlewis) February 14, 2019
Meanwhile, in light of Trump’s crowd size controversy in 2017, when he angrily maintained for months, against all available evidence, that his crowd size had been the largest in history, some speculated that the move was due to a fear of small crowds.
Moving the inauguration indoors wasn’t bc of cold weather except insofar as the expected cold was going to keep the crowd size embarrassingly low. If Trump had any reason to think lots of people were coming in for it he’d have demanded it be outside
— Tim Wise (@timjacobwise) January 17, 2025
Can you guess why Donald Trump is moving the inauguration indoors?
Hint: It’s not the weather. pic.twitter.com/KJo8gdvwVp
— Evan (@daviddunn177) January 17, 2025
As news broke of the inauguration being held indoors, I spoke to some unhappy Trump fans already in town
“Cold ain’t gonna hurt nobody,” one man from Oklahoma told me. “We have farms, and we don’t get to not feed the cows cause it’s cold.”
“It’s kind of a bummer,” a FL man said
— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) January 17, 2025
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.