Democrats are split over whether to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025 as a formal boycott is being materialized as the first act of resistance against Trump. “For somebody who he said he’s going to lock me up, I don’t see the excitement in going to see his inauguration,” former Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told Axios.
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said that as a Latina, she doesn’t “feel safe coming” with Trump’s supporters pouring in for the ceremony. “I’m not going to physically be in D.C. on that day,” she told Axios.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said that attending MLK Day (Martin Luther King Jr Day) events instead “makes sense, because why risk any chaos that might be up here?”
This will be a repetition of what happened in 2017 but now Democrats have an extra reason to boycott Trump: Capitol riots.
But then many Democrats are determined to show up at the event as they think the party would look weak if they boycotted the inauguration.
“That’s a good question,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said when asked if he would be there come January. “I haven’t thought about it.”
Donald Trump Jr intervened to make the decision easier for the Democrats. “Apparently a large group of Democrat legislators plan to boycott my father’s inauguration, which is great as it will make room for a lot more actual patriots to attend. They have my complete and total endorsement to stay at home,” Don Jr posted.
In 2021, Trump did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration and did not even meet the incoming president at White House. After the Capitol riots that broke out as Trump called the election ‘stolen’, he opted to leave Washington directly from the White House. Biden, however, hosted the incoming president last month and will probably attend the inauguration as well. Vice president Kamala Harris who lost the election to Trump will preside over the Senate when it certifies his victory on January 6.
