Donald Trump is micromanaging his inauguration parties, then taking the weekend off

Donald Trump is doing more about the parties in the two days before being sworn in than for the two days after

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published January 17, 2017 3:20PM (EST)

Donald Trump   (AP/Chris Carlson/Shutterstock/Photo montage by Salon)
Donald Trump (AP/Chris Carlson/Shutterstock/Photo montage by Salon)

Recent reports suggest that President-elect Donald Trump is far more focused on throwing a big party in advance of his inauguration than on what he does in his first two days as president after being sworn in on Friday.

"He's into every detail of everything," the Presidential Inaugural Committee's chairman, Tom Barrack, told The New York Post on Sunday. "I beg him all the time to go back to running the free world and let me focus on setting the tables."

Trump's inaugural festivities will begin on Tuesday with the Chairman's Dinner, where he will dine with diplomats, dignitaries and campaign donors. Wednesday will bring the Vice President's Dinner and the Cabinet Dinner, each with 500 guests. The concert at the National Mall on Thursday with a candlelight dinner at Union Station will entertain 1,500 guests. Then on Friday Trump will pray at St. John's Episcopal Church, go to the White House for coffee with the outgoing president and first lady, attend his swearing-in and inaugural parade, join Congress for a lunch on Capitol Hill and then attend three inaugural galas in the evening. The week will wrap up with a prayer breakfast at the Washington National Cathedral on Saturday.

While there's no indication that Trump plans on skimping on any of the partying, he indicated to the Times of London that he intends to take the weekend off before assuming his duties as president.

"[D]ay one — which I will consider to be Monday as opposed to Friday or Saturday," Trump told the Times. "Right? I mean my day one is gonna be Monday because I don’t want to be signing and get it mixed up with lots of celebration." T

In the same interview he said that the first order he'll sign as president will create "strong borders," a theme that he hammered on during his campaign but that he apparently thinks can wait an extra 48 hours before he does something about it.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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