WASHINGTON — For the first since 1985, the president’s inaugural parade will be held inside.
The parade, which has followed the presidential entourage down Pennsylvania Avenue as far back as 1805, will march on inside Capital One Arena on Monday, according to a social media post by President-elect Donald Trump.
“We will open Capital One Arena on Monday for LIVE viewing of this Historic event, and to host the Presidential Parade,” Trump said on Friday. “I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In.”
The move comes after President-elect Trump announced on Friday that he would swear-in as the 47th President and deliver his inaugural address inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda amid a frigid Washington, D.C. weather forecast with severe wind chill. The president-elect had also promoted Capital One Arena as essentially a massive watch party venue for his oath of office and inaugural address
Wind chill on Jan. 20 could be below zero, according to WUSA9 meteorologists. The high temperature on Inauguration Day is forecasted at 23 degrees, with a low at 10 degrees, which could make make it the third or fourth-coldest Inauguration Day in U.S. History.
It will be the first time since 1985 that there will be an indoor inauguration of a U.S. President, as Washington, D.C. faces cold weather and severe wind chill. In 1985, as Ronald Reagan kicked off his second term as president from inside the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. experienced the coldest Inauguration Day temperatures in its history as the U.S. Capitol, at 7 degrees.
The inaugural parade for Reagan, with more than 10,000 participants, had to be moved inside the parade Capital Centre in Landover, Md. However, the public was not invited and the event was instead televised. Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan delivered speeches in front of the crowd of participants.
The inaugural parade was also canceled in 1945 for Franklin Roosevelt’s fourth term as the United States rationed gas during World War II.
The Capital One Arena is in Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown, housing both the District’s basketball and hockey teams; the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals. Trump had already planned on holding a pre inauguration victory rally at the stadium on Sun., Jan. 19 at the venue, which can seat up to 20,000 people.
As a result, the area around Capital One Arena was already closed off before the parade had been moved inside the stadium.
Nearly 7,500 participants from 23 states represent Americans from all walks of life, including a variety of veterans groups, first responders, high school and university marching bands, and equestrian groups.
As is tradition, each branch of the United States Armed Forces will also be represented in the proceedings, including the U.S. Marine Band.
Notably, first-responders from Butler County, Pennsylvania had also been scheduled to march in the inaugural parade. The rural Pennsylvania county was where the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump took place during a campaign rally. Corey Comperatore, a local volunteer firefighter, had been killed by the shots directed at the president-elect.
“What we did together at the Butler Farm Show Grounds as first responders, police and pre-hospital emergency teams on that terrible day in July is what we are trained to do in Butler County every day,” a member of the Butler County first responders group said. “Protect and save lives.”
