MSNBC host Jen Psaki reflected on historical presidential inaugurations held in extreme cold and hinted that President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to move his inauguration indoors may have had less to do with the weather and more to do with crowd size concerns.
With Trump’s team opting to relocate the ceremony to the warmer setting of the Capitol, leaving many MAGA supporters outside in the cold, Psaki contrasted this decision with previous presidents who braved harsh winter conditions for their swearing-in ceremonies.
“It’s going to look a lot different than the first time around, in large part because it will take place inside,” Psaki noted. “The Trump team pointed to the frigid forecast as the reason for moving it indoors,” before acknowledging, “Yes, it is indeed going to be frigid here in Washington tomorrow.”
Drawing comparisons, Psaki highlighted former presidents who held their inaugurations outdoors despite extreme weather. “President Jimmy Carter wasn’t deterred when temperatures dipped below 30 degrees,” she said. “Barack Obama, when wind-chills were in the teens and nearly 2 million people still gathered? It was cold. Very cold, I can promise you.
Heck, I mean, JFK didn’t even wear an overcoat when the high was 26 degrees and there were eight inches of snow on the ground.” Psaki then hinted that the decision to move indoors might have been influenced by concerns about attendance.
“So sure, they say it’s the weather,” she remarked. “I have a hunch crowd size anxiety might just be a factor—who knows?” she added with a smirk.
Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 became a flashpoint for controversy over attendance figures, with his administration famously disputing photographic evidence of the crowd size. Psaki’s comments suggest that those optics may still weigh heavily on Trump’s mind as he prepares to begin his second term.
The decision to move the ceremony indoors has drawn mixed reactions, with some supporters citing the practicality of the move, while critics, like Psaki, question the motivations behind it. Regardless, the scaled-down, indoor event marks a significant departure from the traditional outdoor pomp and circumstance of past inaugurations.