WASHINGTON — Kelly Mann stood outside Capital One Arena early Monday, squinting at the winter sun, leaning against a wagon of red MAGA hats and gaudy gold chains with the visage of Donald Trump, the soon-to-be-inaugurated president.
It was 23 degrees and sunny in the nation’s capital. That was an improvement, Mann said, from Sunday, when freezing rain and snow flurries fell on Washington.
“I mean, if it wasn’t so damn cold, it would still be cool to be here because Trump rallies are a party,” said the 57-year-old tchotchke salesman. “I’m a Trump guy through and through.”
Mann came all the way from the San Gabriel Valley’s La Verne to hawk his Trump trinkets outside the inauguration, which was moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda because of the frigid temperatures.
Most people who traveled to Washington to watch the event in person have been relegated to the Capital One Arena, a sports venue nearby, for a livestream of the official ceremony.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he planned to join the crowd at the arena for a modified presidential parade before finishing the day with a dizzying schedule of three inauguration balls.
Mann said he lived in Pacific Palisades as a child and that he was horrified by what he believed to be poor leadership by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass during the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Mann said of Trump: “Everybody’s on fire about him.”
And of California: “We’re going to turn this state red. Gavin Newsom should be finished after this.”
Still, Mann is a businessman. Over the weekend, he sold Women’s March paraphernalia and rainbow Pride flag gear outside a protest march on the National Mall.
Outside the sports arena, red MAGA caps, beanies and scarves covered the people in a long line waiting to get inside.
Inside the Capitol, members of a University of Nebraska-Lincoln choir, wearing bright red scarves repping their school, practiced the song “One Voice” — “This is the sound of voices two / the sound of me singing with you / helping each other to make it through.”
President Biden met Trump at the White House early Monday, greeting the man who is both his predecessor and his successor with the words: “Welcome home” as he stepped out of a black sport utility vehicle with incoming First Lady Melania Trump.
The Trumps met the president and First Lady Jill Biden on a gold-trimmed red carpet, posing for photographs before heading inside for a private meeting ahead of the inauguration ceremony.
Biden and Trump rode together to the Capitol in the presidential motorcade.
Throughout Washington, flags that were at half-staff following the death of former President Jimmy Carter were returned to full height for the swearing in.
Before the ceremony, Danette and David Quintana stood outside in the cold outside Capital One Arena, where they waited in line for more than four hours to attend Trump’s rally there on Sunday. They were delighted to get inside for that event, which they called “electrifying,” ticking off the celebrities they saw, including singer Kid Rock, members of the Trump family, and X owner Elon Musk, whom Trump has tapped to co-head a so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Danette Quintana said she and her husband are Catholics who believe God spared Trump’s life from two assassination attempts.
“God sends prophets here and there into the earth,” she said. “He’s one of those people … something’s up there, protecting him.”
Pinho and Mehta reporter from Washington, D.C., and Branson-Potts reported from Los Angeles.
