President-elect Donald Trump was roasted across social media on Friday shortly after announcing that his Jan. 20 inauguration will be moved indoors due to “very cold weather.”
ABC reported that the day of his inauguration is expected to be the coldest day for the event in 40 years.
In a Truth Social post, Trump shared a photo of a weather forecast and said that his “various dignitaries and guests,” will be “brought into the Capitol.”
He added, “This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!”
Yet some social media commentators weren’t convinced that moving his big day inside was all about bad weather.
Former White House official and political strategist David Axelrod pointed out that former presidents John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama also braved frigid temperatures for their inaugurations.
“In ’61, John F. Kennedy was Inaugurated on the Capitol steps, in windchills of 7 degrees. It was almost as cold for Obama in ’09,” he said. “In fairness, Trump IS more than 3 decades older than JFK & Obama were. Or did he just fear small crowds?”
John F. Kennedy was sworn in after eight inches of snow fell overnight in D.C. and in temperatures of 22 F. / Boston Globe / Boston Globe via Getty Images
Responding to Axelrod’s post, a commentator added: “For an administration (that) is all about the tough guy culture, they certainly don’t seem that tough. I’ve sat outside in colder temps for hours, but I’m dedicated. Guess he fears his cult followers won’t be that dedicated and that his hair will get messed up with a hat.”
Trump also seemed to suggest that moving the inauguration inside was a matter of safety, mentioning in his Truth Social post: “I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way.”
“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th (In any event, if you decide to come, dress warmly!),” wrote Trump about the “Arctic blast sweeping the country.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also joined in on the trolling with a post poking fun at his announcement and Minnesota’s frequent snowstorms.
Sharing a photo of himself covered in flurries, he wrote, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.”
Sen. Chris Coons and Democratic CNN commentator Bakari Sellers also joked that the move was all about crowd size.
Trump’s obsession with crowd size came to dominate the first days of his first term in office. After what were clearly smaller crowds than had cheered in 2009 for Barack Obama’s first swearing-in, Trump ordered his new press secretary Sean Spicer to deliver a message that, really, his crowd was bigger. “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration. Period. Both in person and around the globe,” he said.
The four-minute, no-questions-answered, tirade positioned Spicer as a reliable, if touchy, figure of fun but an unreliable narrator for the rest of his time as press secretary. (While Trump continued to fume about his crowd size, he also fumed about Spicer’s choice of suit to deliver his dubious claims.)
Later, a U.S. government photographer even edited the official pictures to make the crowd look larger, internal documents flushed out by an Inspector General probe at the Interior Department revealed.
The Trump obsession was mocked most prominently by former Pres. Obama at the Democratic National Convention in August, when he spoke about “this weird obsession with crowd sizes” while using his hands to make a suggestion that the real size obsession stemmed from something far more personal.
