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THERE HAS BEEN much talk in recent weeks about Donald Trump’s team reportedly struggling to get A-list names to attend the new US President’s inauguration and celebratory ball.
A number of big names publicly rejected apparent offers to perform, while other people, including a Bruce Springsteen tribute act – the B-Street Band, dropped out of performing at events to mark the start of Trump’s presidency.
Tom Barrack, chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee, previously said yesterday’s inauguration in Washington DC would have “poetic cadence,” rather than be a “circus-like” coronation.
So, how do Trump and Obama’s big days compare?
To quote the Washington Post, inaugurations are “really, really expensive”.
The newspaper recently crunched the numbers and estimates that yesterday’s inauguration and related events will cost in the region of $175 million to $200 million (around €164 million to €187.5 million). About $70 million (around €65.5 million) will come from private donations, with taxpayers footing the rest of the bill.
For Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, his committee raised a then record of $53 million (about €49.7 million) in private donations – about a third of the overall cost.
How do Trump’s festivities compare to Obama’s first inauguration in 2009 – in terms of performances and attendance?
Obama’s inauguration as 44th President of the United States
Trump’s inauguration as 45th President of the United States
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He was lucky that the protesters added to the numbers as it makes it some bit respectable..
@Francis Mc Carthy: Many Trump supporters could not get in to the inauguration because of the lengthy security checks. They went to hotels to watch on TV, because they could have missed it if they waited.
Many of the photographs shown by Cathrina Perry were taken long before the crowd arrived.
Most contributors here don’t accept the result of the election and cheer violent protests and destruction of property. So its democracy when it goes their way and reject it when it does not.
By the way Jackie Ivanco was terrific despite Catherina Perry saying she only came 2nd in America got tallent.
@Val when Jackie Evancho sang in that AGT contest years ago – she had this amazing voice of an angel. Last night her voice was not of the same timbre as then – it has clearly dropped several octaves…
None of the performances did America proud, all the amazing talent they have there and that’s all they could muster?
A reality show singer for a reality show huckster president.
What absolute ball owl locks , they watched in hotels? How the fluke would you know that?
The reason attendance was down was down to this: people didn’t vote for him, they voted against her. With an approval rating of 39% and the personality a bag of dried dog shite, what would you expect? Log on to Twitter, you’d be hard pressed to find a supporter who has an identifiable profile where an employer or anybody could identify them. Had the democrats run Uncle Joe, Bernie or anyone else in the election, they would have won.
Where are all the usual Trump supporters on this website? Still abed?
Comparing CELEBRITIES really! What a shallow world this has become.
It’s hardly a surprise that the attendance was a lorna lower. Must people in the DC area would be Democrats. He’s an old white guy and there have been loads of old white guy’s president. Personally I think the celebrities falling all over the president would make me less likely to vote for them. These celebrities are out of touch with reality and have no idea how the average person lives. What where the TV rating in comparison. Just says ten of millions for Obama doesn’t mention Trump’s rating. Is the journal being petty?
And of course a billionaire, and all his billionaire buddies know exactly how the average person live!
DC is mainly democrat but the district has a population of about 600,000 people
Doesn’t really add up how it was main influence of Obama having so many more people turn out
He is/was just more popular
DC area has about 10 million. Most urban areas in America are Democrat strongholds. Trump supporters would be out in the suburbs. It’s difficult to getting parking for your SUV in downtown DC. Must would be afraid to use public transport. Trump talking about drugs and volience, crime is at its lowest in 40 years in the US.
Never had much time for the man, but he’s been sworn in as the 45th President of USA. Must respect the wishes of American democracy!
Obama first black president . Comparing with any white president is horseshite
@Alan Flood:@Alan Flood:
Black? Bit of anti white racism there. I’ll go with Morgan Freeman on that one.
Didn’t like his slime ball, “cool” swagger. Good riddance.
Trump and brexit are both examples of democracy in action. Both may seem illogical and may turn out to be bad for the people who voted for them in the short run but both have had one good outcome. They’ve shaken the old guard of “self appointed owners and managers of democracy” such as liberal celebrities, compliant journalists and career politicians to the core and left them wondering what is happening to the world outside of their selfie stick bubble. Ordinary people eventually revolt against ANY form of dictator who takes control of the media and tries to to stamp out any opposing voice.
Mass peer to peer communication, outside of the control of the erstwhile “owners and managers” now allows this to happen. The politics of mass media control by an intellectual and privileged few has truly been disrupted. Blessed is he who masters the art of direct communication. Interesting times indeed.
@Nydon:
Very true indeed. The talk in Davos was that business needs to change and pay more to the people. They are very frightened. The benefit to us is that we will get change with little loss compared to the UK and US. Trump and Brexit are disastrous for those countries, it will not be pretty, but on the bright side we will benefit from reform.
Majority just don’t like him. He’s on thin ice. No mandate.
It will be interesting to see how an American version of Michael O’Leary will run the country.
Does he run an airline and is he into horses too?
@Paddy Michael O’Leary hasn’t been bankrupt a number of times and he wasn’t handed hundreds of millions to start up in business. Comparing Trump to O’Leary is a major insult to O’Leary.
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