Make Republican Voters Pay For Trump’s Record Costing Inauguration
In trump’s garish, money-centered world, bigger is always better and this year’s presidential inauguration promises to be a doozy, with Democrat and Republican taxpayers footing much of the bill.
It would be appropriate to send the bill to each voter who gave trump a second time to create chaos, but it isn’t done that way.
The latest trumpian comedy involves the inaugural on Jan. 20, in Washington, D.C. The public should not be confused to see that flags will be lowered to half-staff during the inauguration. It is not because of the tragedy of a second trump administration but because President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. flags to fly at half-staff for 30 days in honor of Jimmy Carter, the longest-lived American president who died last week at 100.
Among the pre-inaugural festivities, it will cost donors $100,000 to pray with trump and Melania at the “One America, One Light,” pre-inauguration, ecumenical service complete with discordant military bands planned for Sunday, Jan. 18. It is not clear where the service will be held but it’s likely to be at St. John’s Episcopal Church across Lafayette Square from the White House. It’s the same church where trump’s first inauguration prayer service was held in 2016.
It’s also the church where trump infamously posed on June 1, 2020, flashing an upside down Bible shortly after he ordered that racial justice demonstrators be forcible removed from the area.
The question is whether trump will be hawking his $70 bibles with his name engraved on each one.
The pre-election “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” rally is planned for Jan. 19, at the Capital One Arena, with a capacity of around 20,000 people. Trump loves rallies, having lorded over more than 900 rallies since his first campaign in 2015. The “Make American Great Again Rally” rally will be trump’s first rally since Jan. 6, 2021. That day trump riled up thousands of supporters, falsely telling them he had defeated President Joe Biden and directed them to march on the Capitol. Hundreds of trump followers stormed the building, assaulting law enforcement officers in an effort to carry out violence against lawmakers and stop the certification of electoral votes.
The Secret Service is most certainly pulling its collective hair out as it prepares security for the trump rally which will come under the cloud of a heightened terror threat level. Two attacks were reported in Louisiana and Nevada on New Year’s day. In the first, an alleged terrorist with possible ties to the international terror group, ISIS, used his pickup truck to mow down revelers in New Orleans, La., killing 15 and injuring 30. Soon after, a Tesla cybertruck exploded, killing the driver and injuring seven people, outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev.
A series of speakers to be announced for the “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” rally will likely even outshine the luminaries at recent trump campaign rallies, the likes of rapper Trick Trick, a member of the hip hop group “Goon Squad”; Hulk Hogan, Dennis Quaid and former world boxing champ, Thomas “Hitman” Hearns, among many others.
The inauguration is planned to take place on the federal holiday to honor the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. One oxymoronic feature of the inaugural parade will be the performance by the Mississippi Valley State University marching band. The university is a historically Black university, and its acceptance to join in the inaugural has generated criticism because if trump’s dismal record on civil rights.
Among many low points, trump has entertained white supremacists and in 2020, his campaign targeted predominantly Black and Latino voting precincts in his election fraud propaganda campaign, which was found to be totally devoid of any facts.
Trump was in the forefront of the attack on critical race theory and having public schools prohibited from teaching the theory which posits that racial bias is inherent in many parts of society, especially its legal and social institutions, because the institutions were primarily designed for and implemented by white people.
Trump issued an executive order banning diversity training in the workplace and promised to end all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. DEI are organizational frameworks to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly groups who have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination on the basis of identity or disability.
Trump suggested that the military shoot Black Lives Matter protesters. He also called for the execution of the Central Park Five, five teenagers who were wrongly charged with a 1989 rape and assault of a woman jogger and the assault of two other men in Central Park in New York City.
The teens between 14 and 16 years old were pressured into giving false confessions in the case and were each given prison sentences between five and 12 years. They were exonerated in 2002 when DNA evidence linked another person to the crime. The teenagers sued the city, and the case was settled in 2014.
In October, members of the “Central Park Five” sued trump over “false and defamatory” statements they allege he made about their case during a presidential debate last month. During the debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, trump said the five had pleaded guilty and that the teenagers had “badly hurt a person, killed a person” in the attack.
None of the five teens pled guilty to the assaults. Each pled not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout their trial and incarceration, as well as after they were released from prison.
After the assault, trump took out full-page ads that ran in several New York City newspapers that read in all-caps, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”
Trump also has ignored inaugural tradition by inviting world leaders to attend the inauguration. It is rare for heads of state to attend presidential inaugurations although invitations are at the discretion of the incoming president. Invitations are rarely given, largely out of security concerns for visiting leaders.
Generally, the bipartisan Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) and the State Department will reach out to diplomats to attend. The JCCIC has already begun sending invitations to every country’s chief of mission, as part of its typical protocol.
Among those who trump has invited to the Jan. 20 ceremony are Xi Jinping, president of China, a nation that is expected to be a major target of crippling tariffs that trump is expected to impose. Xi has said he will not attend but will send a delegation.
Others invited are far right wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, right wing Argentinian President Javier Milei and El Salvador’s right wing President Nayib Bukele, who the U.S. government has alleged corruption and human rights abuses by his government. Also invited is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump has promised to end the Russian war in Ukraine immediately upon being sworn in as president.
The 2025 inauguration festivities will probably top the costs for trump’s 2017 inauguration which is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for the most expensive inauguration ever. In 2017, trump’s inaugural committee raised a record $90 million to cover the privately funded part of the inauguration. It topped the prior record holder, President Obama, whose committee raised $55 million in 2009 and $43 million in 2013.
Trump’s 2017 inauguration cost an estimated $175 million to $200 million. About $70 million came from private donations; taxpayers footed the rest of the bill.
This year’s inauguration has been given $50 million in federal money, so far. In December, the federal government narrowly averted a year-end shutdown after the GOP-controlled House of Representatives failed to write a bill that could pass the Democratic-run Senate and be signed by President Biden.
In their version, Republicans had cut $190 million in funds for pediatric cancer research while including $50 million for trump’s inauguration. The cancer research funding was rescued in a compromise in the Senate and the inaugural funds remained intact.
The Presidential Inaugural Committee pays one part of the festivities and the federal government (taxpayers) pays its share.
The committee pays for everything around the swearing-in ceremony, including a candlelight dinner with the trump and JD Vance, lunch with Cabinet appointees, a concert and the inaugural balls. Inaugural packages start at $25,000 and go up to $1 million, which gives VIP donors the most tickets and the best seats.
The actual swearing-in on Jan. 20 is hosted by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. The swearing-in costs slightly more than $1 million and is paid for by the federal government.
Further federal funds cover construction of the elaborate stage on the west side of the Capitol and the official congressional luncheon for trump and Vance. The biggest expense is for security, transportation and emergency services, and cleanup, which cost $115 million in 2005 and $124 million in 2009.
Trump’s first inaugural committee was investigated by federal prosecutors for illegal foreign donations and resulted in a 12-year prison sentence for Imaad Zuberi, a California venture capitalist who pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into a nearly $1 million donation to trump’s 2016 inaugural committee.
The trump committee raised $107 million in 2016 and 2017. The current inaugural committee is led by Steven Witkoff, a billionaire real estate tycoon and friend of trump who has given nearly $2 million to Trump’s political causes over the past decade. Trump also has named Witkoff as a special envoy to the Middle East, along with Kelly Loeffler, a former Republican senator from Georgia.
Inaugural committee members who give $1 million or raise $2 million receive six tickets to access exclusive inaugural events between Saturday, Jan. 18, and Monday, Jan. 20. The largest package includes access to Saturday’s “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” rally on Saturday with “high-profile speakers,” followed by access to an event with Cabinet appointees and a dinner with Vice President-elect JD Vance and incoming second lady Usha Vance.
The package also includes access to the “One America, One Light Sunday Service” and access to a candlelight dinner with the trumps that evening.
Committee members who give $500,000 or raise $1 million receive four tickets to access the Saturday rally and Cabinet reception, the Sunday service and candlelight dinner, and the Monday ball. Committee members who give $250,000 or raise $500,000 have access to the same events but with just two tickets.
Committee members who give $100,000 or raise $200,000 receive two tickets to attend the rally, Cabinet reception, service on Sunday and ball on Monday. Finally, committee members who give a paltry $50,000 and or raise a meager $100,000 receive two tickets to the rally, Cabinet reception, and ball on Monday.