When tradition is bigger than partisanship
WASHINGTON • Two days from now, Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, will arrive at the White House for morning tea with President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. Upstairs, in the residence, movers will rush around, simultaneously packing up the outgoing family’s last belongings as they unload those of the Trumps.
By lunchtime, Obama will have handed over the reins of the world’s most powerful nation to a man who vowed to tear down his biggest achievements and who defeated Obama’s chosen successor.
After a rancorous campaign that blew away precedent, an election result that shocked the political establishment and a transition by Twitter that upended convention, the unorthodox will be overtaken — at least for a few hours — by tradition.
The inauguration is “one of those great turning points” in the nation’s political consciousness, historian William Seale said. “Everything was going along one way and suddenly there’s a turnaround, and he won. A stop and a change. A reevaluation.”
Trump’s swearing-in will be “the moment on the head of a pin,” he said.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the day will be the limousine ride that Obama and Trump will share on the ride to the Capitol past thousands of onlookers. It promises to be especially awkward: Trump spent years stoking false doubts about Obama’s legitimacy to hold office. Obama spent months telling voters that Trump was uniquely unqualified to be president.
Trump is seeking a “delicate balance between abiding by tradition” and leaving “his own fingerprint on a fresh canvas,” an inauguration planner said, adding, “Mostly he’s abiding by tradition especially in the swearing-in ceremony.”
That tradition includes having the chief justice of the U.S., John Roberts Jr., administering the oath of office to Trump; vice-presidentelect Mike Pence has chosen Justice Clarence Thomas for his swearing-in.
Trump plans to issue some executive orders on inauguration day and may swear in some of his Cabinet members, Spicer told reporters Tuesday. But the incoming president will wait until Monday, the first full business day of his presidency, for “a big flurry of activity.”
While most of the focus will be on the Trumps’ arrival, the Obamas will have their own emotional experience, said Kate Andersen Brower, a former Bloomberg News reporter and author of First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.
On their last morning at the White House, the outgoing first family traditionally gathers the residence staff, about 100 people, in the State Dining Room to say goodbye. The staff present the family with a gift. By tradition, staff carpenters handcraft a box to hold two American flags, the one flown over the White House on the day the president was inaugurated and the one flying on his last day in office.
STOPPING THE BLOODSHED BEGINS WITH THE FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS CALLING THIS WHAT IT IS: A PUBLIC EMERGENCY. — ROBERT MUGGAH, IGARAPE INSTITUTE