There is no escaping the politics

Democrats to stay away

Twitter trolls have called Jackie Evancho, 16, a “traitor” for agreeing to sing the national anthem at Donald Trump’s inauguration because her 18-year-old sister, Juliet, is transgender and VicePresident-elect Mike Pence has supported anti-LGBT legislation.

“I just kind of thought that this is for my country,” Evancho said. “So if people are going to hate on me, it’s for the wrong reason.”

While some high-profile artistes are refusing on moral grounds, there’s no professional upside to their performing, either. That may be why even pro-Trump artistes have been refusing to say publicly whether they will perform.

Donations pour in

The Talladega College Marching Tornadoes band took a lot of heat in the last few weeks for agreeing to perform in Donald Trump’s inaugural parade. Talladega, a small, historically black college in Alabama, had been struggling to raise the $75,000 (Dh275,475) to send the band to

Washington for the January 20 inauguration. But after the college’s president, Billy C. Hawkins, appeared on Thursday on The

O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, donations from the show’s largely conservative audience flooded in.

Several Democrat congressmen have announced that they will break away from a bipartisan tradition by not attending the swearing-in ceremony of Donald Trump. Arizona Representative Raul Grijalva said he will be working in his constituency and that his absence from Washington is not due to a lack of respect for the institution, but a challenge to the man who has lacked respect towards millions of Americans.

Long time Georgia congressman John Lewis, a noted civil rights activist, will be absent from the ceremony for the first time since being elected in 1987, as he does not believe Trump will be a legitimate president due to Russia’s alleged attempts to meddle in the elections.