A POINTED MESSAGE
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas led the service this morning at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Jeffress is a familiar face to Trump and his eagle-eyed supporters; he appeared with Trump at many rallies on the campaign trail.
“I’m not going to lecture the new president,” Jeffress said during an interview with Fox News on Thursday night.
Jeffress said he intends to “encourage” Trump by comparing him “to another great leader God chose.”
“[God] told Nehemiah to build a giant wall around Jerusalem to protect the citizens, so I’m going to use Nehemiah’s story as an example of why God blesses leaders,” Jeffress said.
The service was closed to the media, but the Trump team’s social media and senior adviser, Dan Scavino Jr., shared two tweets from the service.
Pence also posted pictures, including this one:
RUNDOWN OF THE DAY
The day’s schedule of events follows the pattern of past inaugurations: The Trumps stayed overnight at Blair House, across the street from the White House.
Before the inaugural ceremony, the Trumps sat down for tea with the Obamas; Melania Trump presented them with a box from jeweler Tiffany & Co. Also present at the White House were the Pences, Vice President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Trump’s Cabinet-level picks and former presidents were in attendance for the inauguration.
Former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton arrived at the Capitol together. Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote by roughly 3 million ballots, wore white, a color that holds special significance for the suffragist movement.
MIXING TRADITION WITH PERSONAL TOUCHES
Trump chose two Bibles for his swearing-in: his childhood Bible and President Abraham Lincoln’s Bible. The only other president to use Lincoln’s Bible was Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013.
Jackie Evancho, a 16-year-old “America’s Got Talent” alum, sang the national anthem.
An abnormal facet of the day will be the sizable number of congressional Democrats who announced they are skipping the inauguration. The latest count has one-third of House Dems boycotting the ceremony. There is no modern precedent for a planned political boycott of this scale.
Article Appeared @http://abc7chicago.com/news/trump-sworn-in-as-45th-president-of-the-united-states/1711630/