The inauguration will be moved indoors

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Lerato Khumalo

Icy temperatures threaten

Trump’s inauguration will be moved indoors

Updated on January 17, 2025 – 6:53 p.mReading time: 2 minutes

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Donald Trump: Apparently the presidential inauguration will no longer take place outside. (Source: Bloomberg/getty-images-bilder)

Next Monday, temperatures in Washington are expected to be well below zero. This also has an impact on the inauguration of Donald Trump.

Due to the icy cold, the inauguration of the future US President Donald Trump will be moved to the Capitol. He didn’t want people to be hurt or harmed in any way, and that’s why he ordered the inauguration address, prayers and other speeches to take place in the Capitol dome on Monday, Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social . Traditionally, the ceremony takes place on the west side of the Parliament building in the open air.

The inauguration typically draws crowds to the National Mall, the large promenade between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. Trump wrote that a sports arena in downtown Washington would be opened to visitors to watch the inauguration live via broadcast. The traditional parade will also take place there – and he himself will be there after his swearing in, Trump wrote.

The US capital Washington cannot escape the sub-zero temperatures – on Monday it could be colder than it has been for an inauguration in decades. It’s not expected to be quite as icy as it was at Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985, when, according to the National Weather Service, it was almost minus 14 degrees at midday. The forecast for Sunday night is currently around minus eight degrees, the maximum temperature on Monday is expected to be around minus six degrees, but it could feel significantly colder.

Reagan’s second inauguration also had to take place in the Rotunda. The weather service reports his inauguration as the coldest since weather records began in 1871. The weather service says the “normal” maximum temperature on Inauguration Day is seven degrees. The normal minimum temperature is minus one degree. At lunchtime it is usually around three degrees.

Trump has repeatedly used cold snaps in the past as an opportunity to mock where global warming has gone.