Inauguration 2025: Balancing custom amid unprecedented safety dangers
Planning a presidential inauguration is rarely straightforward, however this time round – given current occasions – it could be tougher than ever earlier than. FOX 5’s Josh Rosenthal spoke to James, the proprietor and founding father of Gordon C. James Public Relations, who labored on George H.W. Bush’s inauguration in 1989, then on each of George W. Bush’s inaugurations and Donald Trump’s first inauguration again in 2017.
WASHINGTON – Planning a presidential inauguration is rarely straightforward, however this time round – given current occasions – it could be tougher than ever earlier than.
“I feel issues are just a little extra tense now than they have been then,” veteran inauguration planner Gordon James mentioned Thursday.
James, the proprietor and founding father of Gordon C. James Public Relations, labored on George H.W. Bush’s inauguration in 1989, then on each of George W. Bush’s inaugurations, and on Donald Trump’s first inauguration again in 2017.
“From my standpoint,” James mentioned, “it was simply the best time on the earth.”
However some issues have modified. After this week’s tragedy in New Orleans, after the truck explosion in Las Vegas, after the assassination makes an attempt and extra, FOX 5 reached out to James to ask how completely different it could be to plan an inauguration now versus his first, greater than three a long time in the past.
“The world’s modified. I imply the New Orleans factor is simply weird … I don’t perceive the Las Vegas factor. The assassination makes an attempt on President Trump are simply past perception,” James defined, earlier than including, “there’s going to be a variety of stress to verify all the things comes off completely.”
“I don’t ever bear in mind one trace of any person saying it’s simply not gonna be safe,” James mentioned of the 1989 inauguration. “I don’t do not forget that in any respect.”
Nonetheless, he mentioned some issues haven’t modified. As an example, the sheer variety of folks you want working collectively to make an occasion the magnitude of a presidential inauguration work.
DC on excessive safety alert forward of Trump inauguration, Carter funeral
A high-security presence has enveloped the nation’s capital as officers put together for a collection of high-profile occasions within the coming weeks. FOX 5’s Tom Fitzgerald has the story.
