POLITICS

Bitterly Cold Inauguration Days – A Bad Omen For An Administration

Arctic blasts bode poorly for presidents, but Donald Trump has plenty of history defying the odds…

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When Donald Trump puts his hand on the Bible at noon on Monday and swears for the second time to “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States,” he’ll be looking around the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and not onto the National Mall.

Blame it on bitterly cold weather. The low mercury means the quadrennial ceremony is heading indoors for the first time in four decades.

That’s not the most auspicious note on which to launch a new administration. A review of the coldest inauguration days in history shows things didn’t go particularly well afterward for the presidents who endured them.

Take Ronald Reagan‘s 1985 inauguration, for instance. Fresh off a reelection romp in November 1984 – in which he carried 49 states – Reagan had more headaches starting his second term than he encountered in brushing aside Walter Mondale.

In fact, Reagan was sworn in twice for his second term. Inauguration Day fell on a Sunday in 1985, so he first took the oath in a private ceremony inside the White House. The bigger, traditional public affair was planned for the next day on the Capitol’s West Front. But when Monday rolled around, it brought with it a daytime temperature of 7° F , with wind chills as cold as -25° F. So, the whole thing was herded into the Rotunda. Nice, but hardly the splashy surroundings a president accustomed to Hollywood would have desired.

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Ronald Reagan takes the oath of office inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 20, 1985. (The White House)

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Trouble quickly followed. Reagan underwent colon cancer surgery in 1985. In 1986, congress overrode one of his presidential votes for the first time – usually a sign of trouble ahead. Sure enough, the GOP lost the Senate in that fall’s mid-term elections, giving Democrats control of congress for the last two years of Republican Reagan’s presidency. There were headaches aplenty within his cabinet, capped by the Iran-Contra scandal that came dangerously close to toppling him. 

Reagan regained his popularity in his final year in the White House, though he never fully recaptured the sparkle of his first term.

It was also bitterly cold when John F. Kennedy was sworn in back in 1961. A particularly nasty Nor’easter blew through Washington, D.C. the day before, dumping eight inches of snow overnight. More than a thousand city employees (aided by 1,700 Boy Scout volunteers) worked feverishly until showtime to clear D.C. streets. Kennedy’s outdoor ceremony went ahead as planned in 20° F weather. When he famously proclaimed, “ask not what your country can do for you,” the words were punctuated by white puffs coming out of his mouth.

Though far from a failure, Kennedy’s single term was no bed of roses. The economy struggled, racial desegregation was messy and sometimes plagued by violence, and foreign affairs were marked by one tinderbox after another: the Bay of Pigs, the Berlin Wall, and the granddaddy of them all, the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world came perilously close to nuclear war.

And, of course, it all ended in a nightmare on a Dallas street on a Friday afternoon in November 1963.

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For a sheer frozen disaster, however, one must go back to Ulysses S. Grant‘s second ceremony in 1873. Inauguration Day was in March back then. You’d think that would mean warmer temperatures… but you’d be wrong.

March 4, 1873, was the coldest March day ever recorded in Washington. The mercury barely hit 16° F by noon, and the wind chill was -16° F. The old general soldiered through the outdoor ceremony and then shivered through the Inaugural Parade. The U.S Naval Academy midshipmen who accompanied him hadn’t been provided with heavy overcoats, and several collapsed from exposure.

But the worst was yet to come…

Some 1,000 revelers crammed inside a specially built wooden building in Judiciary Square for that night’s Inaugural Ball. The temperature was 4° F, turning the structure into a frozen house of horror. In that pre-electric heating era, champagne froze inside bottles, and food turned into blocks of ice. Musicians’ instruments warped and wouldn’t play.

Making matters worse, some Victorian-era socialite thought having dozens of birds chirping merrily in cages overhead would give the festivities a pleasing aura. Only the birds didn’t chirp — they croaked. Not surprisingly, when dead, frozen bird bodies began falling on the crowd, folks called it a night.

As for Grant’s term that followed? It’s generally considered a low point of the presidency, with one scandal after another erupting like a string of firecrackers. Though personally honest and honorable, Grant surrounded himself with men who weren’t. He left the White House amid a haze of sleaziness in high office.

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RELATED | DONALD TRUMP HAILS MIDDLE EAST CEASEFIRE

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Now, here we are with another Deep Freeze Inauguration Day. The record would suggest that doesn’t bode well for Donald Trump. 

Yet the man has more political lives than the proverbial cat. So far he’s survived two impeachments, four criminal cases, and two assassination attempts – and on Monday will become the only president to shatter Grover Cleveland’s two non-consecutive terms claim to fame. So, while an arctic blast on Inauguration Day might usually portend bad presidential luck, in Trump’s case I wouldn’t bet on it.

“January 20th cannot come fast enough!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Everybody, even those that initially opposed a victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen. It is my obligation to protect the people of our country but, before we even begin, we have to think of the Inauguration itself. The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows. There is an Arctic blast sweeping the country. 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!).”

After outlining plans for the indoor swearing-in, Trump noted it would “be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!”

“Everyone will be safe, everyone will be happy, and we will, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump concluded.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Mark Powell (Provided)

J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.

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2 comments

J Doe January 17, 2025 at 5:37 pm

This administration will absolutely be a disaster. Weather may be an omen but will not be the reason trump fails spectacularly.

Reply
Mike Tongour Top fan January 18, 2025 at 11:50 am

Haven’t read anything this well researched about freezing Inaugurals in the past anywhere. Most just comment on 1985. Enjoyed reading it. Thanks for the good work.

Reply

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