From half-staff flags in honor of former President Jimmy Carter to special-edition Diet Coke bottles, President Donald Trump’s inaugural weekend in Washington, D.C. certainly had a Georgia stamp on it. Which is fitting, since the battleground state was key to putting Trump back into office.
Georgians of all political stripes traveled to the nation’s capital last weekend to show their enthusiasm for — or disapproval of — the new president. Some made a nine-hour bus trek despite the fact frigid weather would hamper their inaugural viewing experience. Others went to take the streets in protest.
Along with my colleagues on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s politics team, I spent four days in the nation’s capital speaking with Georgians and documenting the historic event. Here’s what I saw.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Presidential inaugurations are typically held on the west front of the U.S. Capitol. But Trump’s inauguration was moved to the Capitol Rotunda, due to dangerously low temperature — the first time weather has forced the ceremonies inside since former President Ronald Reagan assumed a second term in 1985. Above, attendees wait to enter Georgia’s Peachtree Ball on Jan. 18 at Union Station in Washington.
Not everyone who traveled to D.C. for the weekend was a supporter. At the People’s March on Saturday, Jan. 18, I met up with members of Atlanta-based abortion rights group SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (below). They joined an estimated 50,000 people to protest Trump’s policies on issues such as abortion, immigration and climate change.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
We walked about a mile and a half from Franklin Park to the Lincoln Monument, joining up with other contingents of protesters along the way. The turnout was a fraction of the half-million demonstrators who showed up after Trump’s first inauguration eight years ago. But some elements remained the same, like the pink hats with cat ears that allude to the 2016 leaked video where Trump talks about grabbing women.
The phrase “nasty,” pictured below, references Trump’s comments about rival Hillary Clinton during a 2016 presidential debate.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
After the march, the AJC’s politics team headed to a very different evening event: The Peachtree Ball at Union Station. It was a who’s who of Georgia politics, drawing officials such as U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome; and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. I snapped this photo of U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens and his wife, Jennifer (below) sharing a dance.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
At the entrance of the ball I noticed a table of Coca-Cola bottles. Coca-Cola, headquartered in Atlanta, has been creating custom inaugural Coke bottles for the past 20 years. But this year was the first custom Diet Coke bottle, a nod to Trump’s affinity for the beverage. The president even has a Diet Coke button on his desk in the Oval Office for immediate orders.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
After Georgia native Carter died in late December, then-President Joe Biden ordered flags to be at half-staff for a month. One of Trump’s first actions as president was to order flags to fly at full staff on his Inauguration Day and all future presidential inaugurations. I went to the Washington Monument the next day, Jan. 21, and found the flags lowered again.
It’s not the first time lowered flags have been temporarily pulled back up. In 1973, when flags were at half-staff after the death of President Lyndon Johnson, then-President Richard Nixon ordered them raised to honor the first American prisoners of war released from Vietnam.
On Jan. 19, the evening before his inauguration, Trump held a rally at Capital One Arena. Though I didn’t photograph that event, I went to see what the scene was outside before it started. Thousands of supporters waited in line to nab a spot in the approximately 20,000-capacity venue. Some passed around a cutout of Trump on a surfboard, proclaiming that the soon-to-be president was surfing the “red wave” to “drain the swamp.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Tabatha Foster of New York brought her custom-dressed Barbies to join in on the celebrations.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
In the evening I headed to a suburban RV park in Maryland, where a bus caravan from Georgia was stationed. About 80 folks had made the trip up and were lodging in the Trump-decorated tour buses.
Tour bus operator Danny Hamilton (center) invited me in to take a look while he watched the rally with friends. Hamilton has attended more than 50 rallies and met Trump six times over the past decade, he said.
Inauguration Day fell on Monday, Jan. 20. People again assembled in the bitter cold to see Trump at Capital One Arena, where an indoor inaugural parade would be held following the president’s swearing-in at the Capitol.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
When I saw these women lined up in Confederate flag beanies, I asked where they were from. “Georgia!” they responded.
A South Georgia high school marching band and a professional mounted drill team from Covington were among the performers nixed from the event due to its relocation. The news was “very disheartening,” Elizabeth Dabney of the Diamond D Cowgirls told the AJC.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
I’ve photographed several Trump rallies in sports arenas across the South. The inaugural parade had many of the familiar sights and sounds of one. Supporters in red MAGA hats filled the stadium to the rafters and waited hours for their candidate to arrive. But there was a special air of jubilation to this one.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
In the morning, a jumbotron livestreamed the inaugural events. Supporters cheered and booed as they saw politicians they recognized. One attendee, above, made a thumbs-down gesture when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on camera.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Trump arrived to roaring applause and the music of the U.S. Army Field Band. He walked down the stadium steps through a throng of supporters, before taking his place on stage with Vice President JD Vance and their families to watch the performances. Trump later signed a slew of executive orders, including one that withdrew the country from the Paris climate agreement.
Then Trump returned to the White House, where he issued pardons for about 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants and ordered that charges be dropped for others, resulting in clearing the records of 44 defendants from Georgia.”
The evening wasn’t over for Trump, who went on to attend several balls. But it was for me.
I flew back to Georgia the next day, where I started preparing for a very different assignment: Instead of looking at Washington D.C. through a Georgia lens, for the next four years we’ll be covering Georgia through the lens of Trump’s administration and policies.
About the Author
