WASHINGTON – Judd Zimmermann’s daughter hasn’t spoken to him since November because of his support for Donald Trump. His wife voted for Kamala Harris.
“It’s like the Civil War, it’s breaking a lot of families apart,” said Zimmermann.
Despite the pain Trump’s election had caused his family, he traveled from Woodbridge, Va., to attend his president’s inauguration. Dressed warmly with a can of beer in hand, he joined thousands of other Trump supporters standing in line to enter the Capital One Arena on Jan. 20.
Due to chilly D.C. weather, the inauguration ceremony, usually held on the steps of the Capitol, was moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda, and closed to the public. Instead, the Capital One Arena hosted a live stream of the proceedings and Trump himself greeted supporters there in the early evening.
The location was not the only unconventional aspect of the inauguration. Trump, a convicted felon, became only the second president ever sworn into non-consecutive terms. He returned to office four years after his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 in response to his accusations that President Biden stole the election.
Outside the arena, vendors hawked Trump merchandise, members of religious groups carried 15-feet-tall signs calling for repentance, and a pair of counterprotesters blared anti-Trump slogans through a megaphone.
Anti-immigration activist Patty Morin came from Maryland. She said became engaged with the issue after her daughter Rachel Morin was brutally raped and murdered in Harford County, Md., in the summer of 2023; authorities later identified the suspect as a Salvadoran immigrant.
Last year, Morin spoke at three Trump rallies, she said, and testified before Congress twice. She urged Trump to close the border to illegal immigration.
“I believe that he will, in a humane way, do this deportation that is necessary for the security of our nation,” she said.
In the first hours of his presidency, Trump, who campaigned heavily on immigration issues, was expected to sign a flurry of executive orders, including to declare a national emergency at the southern border and to close the border to migrants without legal status.
Morin defended Trump’s brusk behavior.
“He’s from Brooklyn, N.Y., so he’s kind of rough around the edges. But, I mean, don’t you have friends that are kind of like that, too?” she said about the new president.
Three students from George Washington University had tried to avoid the throngs of people but accidentally ended up in the crowd on their way home from a workout.
“DC is definitely in a state of mourning. I think half the city probably left,” Gabi Andrews, a junior, said.
The inauguration also drew visitors from abroad.
Mark Nicholls caught a plane from Heathrow last night just to witness Donald Trump’s inauguration. Braving the 20-degree weather to stand in line for the arena, the U.K. citizen welcomed a president who was not even his own.
He named immigration as the biggest problem facing the West today.
“I think this open border policy, where anyone can waltz in and there’s no check-in, is a big problem. And that’s what’s happening in Europe and in the U.K.,” said Nicholls.
He said he expected Trump to take care of immigration issues in the United States and that it will have a “domino effect” on policy across the globe.
“It’s a chance for the world to realign itself,” he added.
