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Trump's return recalls when inaugurations were more than just ceremonies

President Ronald Reagan is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger in an Inauguration ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 1985.
Bill Creighton
/
Bettmann/Getty Images
President Ronald Reagan is sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger in an Inauguration ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 1985.

Presidential inaugurations are, by definition, historic acts, but when we think of past Inauguration Days, there is clearly a hierarchy of historical pop.

Who could forget John F. Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" in 1961? Or Ronald Reagan, 20 years later, relocating the ceremony for the first time from the East Front of the U.S. Capitol to the magnificent West Front facing the National Mall and the Washington Monument?

Or the surprise of seeing the grand stage and spectacle reduced to the indoor space of the Capitol Rotunda in 1985 due to severe cold? The latter scene will have a reprise on Monday as plunging temperatures have moved the second Trump inaugural ceremony indoors.

As a rule, the biggest splash has been made by the newly elected presidents coming to office for the first time, especially those elected in opposition to the party previously in control of the White House. These have drawn the largest crowds and inspired the most breathless anticipation.

The atmosphere itself seems to ask: How will things be different now in Washington, in the country at large and in the wider world?

Such questions do not accompany the reelected incumbents, no matter how gratifying reelection and the continuation in power may be at the time. The thrill of Day 1 has rarely been as great the second time around.

We have seen this transformative kind of Inauguration Day twice in recent years, with Barack Obama in 2009 and then with Donald Trump in 2017. Both were considered unlikely winners of their respective parties' nominations. Both had overcome those odds on the strength of things they had done far from Washington and its measures of importance.

Read more Inauguration Day history and highlights here.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Ron Elving
Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News, where he is frequently heard as a news analyst and writes regularly for NPR.org.