WASHINGTON: Metal detectors, roadblocks, thousands of security officers — some with heavy automatic weapons — and barricades of metal and sand trucks have descended on Washington, DC in preparation for Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday as the 45th US president.
As many of its own locals fled the week of presidential festivities, Trump tweeted Tuesday: “The people are pouring into Washington in record numbers. Bikers for Trump are on their way. It will be a great Thursday, Friday and Saturday!”
His inauguration is already standing out in its security measures, attendance and expectations.
The ceremony will miss the Hollywood presence, with stars such as Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore and Amy Schumer opting out and participating in protests the day after.
The historic event is also being met by an unprecedented boycott from more than 40 House Democrats, who are making a statement against Trump’s rhetoric and ongoing Twitter storm against Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis.
The event will also be shrouded by massive protests by Trump’s opponents who have started arriving into DC, with some planning disruptions and street blockages during inauguration day.
DC as a security fortress
Around 3,200 police officers are preparing to take charge of downtown’s security on inauguration day, with a budget exceeding $110 million to safeguard the nation’s capital and Pennsylvania Avenue, which Trump will take from the Capitol building to the White House.
Mike Litterst, spokesperson for the National Park Service, told Arab News: “The final preparations are taking place to secure the whole area from the Lincoln Memorial to Lafayette Park.”
Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence will take part in a “Make America Great Again!” welcome concert at the Lincoln Memorial Thursday, on the eve of the inauguration.
Also on Thursday, Trump and Pence are expected to visit Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The security plans involve more than 30 organizations, says Litterst, including the police, the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security. Of particular focus are the protests; some have already begun nightly in DC this week, and will culminate in “The Million March” for women’s groups on Saturday. The Park Service is expecting around 400,000 protesters to take part in Saturday’s march from 28 groups.
For the inauguration itself, 900,000 people are expected to attend, higher than the attendance for George W. Bush’s inauguration but lower than Barack Obama’s record 1.8 million attendees in 2009.
While the larger protests are designed to be peaceful and organized, a group called DisruptJ20 is planning disruptions and blockages during the inauguration itself and for the parade.
“The idea is to shut down access to the parade as much as possible and slowing it down to a crawl,” DisruptJ20 organizer Legba Carrefour told NBC News.
“Then there’s the broader goal of shutting down the entire city around it, and creating a sense of paralysis that creates a headline that says, ‘Trump’s inauguration creates chaos,’” he added, although the security grid and restricted access could make such a task extremely complicated.
A divided country
The security scene around the inauguration, and the charged rhetoric from both Trump and his opponents — some have called his election “illegitimate” — speaks to a deeper divide in US society and politics.
Staffers at the Sofitel and the May Flower hotels, situated a few blocks away from the White House, told Arab News that they are taking extra security measures inside and outside the hotel to avoid clashes between Trump supporters and protesters.
A more visible security presence is seen in the lobbies of major DC upscale hotels, with a few installing metal detectors or hiring private security for the whole week.
Polls released on the eve of the inauguration show Trump with historically low approval ratings.
In a poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC, his favorability is only 40 percent, compared with 79 percent for outgoing President Barack Obama in 2009.
A CNN-ORC poll gives Trump a 53 percent unfavorability rating, also unseen in recent US history.
These numbers will not stop Trump from taking the oath of office on Friday, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, as the Marines band plays “Hail to the Chief” followed by the firing of a 21-gun salute.
However, the divide poses a big challenge for Trump in constraining his political capital and ability to build bridges with Democrats.
Washington becomes security fortress for the Trump inauguration
Washington becomes security fortress for the Trump inauguration
Moscow made an offer to France regarding a French citizen imprisoned in Russia, says Kremlin
- Laurent Vinatier, an adviser for Swiss-based adviser Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, Vinatier was arrested in Moscow in June 2024
- He is accused of failing to register as a “foreign agent” while collecting information about Russia’s “military and military-technical activities”
The Kremlin on Thursday said it was in contact with the French authorities over the fate of a French political scholar serving a three-year sentence in Russia and reportedly facing new charges of espionage.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia has made “an offer to the French” regarding Laurent Vinatier, arrested in Moscow last year and convicted of collecting military information, and that “the ball is now in France’s court.” He refused to provide details, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
French President Emmanuel Macron is following Vinatier’s situation closely, his office said in a statement. French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said Thursday that all government services are fully mobilized to pay provide consular support to Vinatier and push for his liberation as soon as possible.
Peskov’s remarks come after journalist Jérôme Garro of the French TF1 TV channel asked President Vladimir Putin during his annual news conference on Dec. 19 whether Vinatier’s family could hope for a presidential pardon or his release in a prisoner exchange. Putin said he knew “nothing” about the case, but promised to look into it.
Vinatier was arrested in Moscow in June 2024. Russian authorities accused him of failing to register as a “foreign agent” while collecting information about Russia’s “military and military-technical activities” that could be used to the detriment of national security. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The arrest came as tensions flared between Moscow and Paris following French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments about the possibility of deploying French troops in Ukraine.
Vinatier’s lawyers asked the court to sentence him to a fine, but the judge in October 2024 handed him a three-year prison term — a sentence described as “extremely severe” by France’s Foreign Ministry, which called for the scholar’s immediate release.
Detentions on charges of spying and collecting sensitive data have become increasingly frequent in Russia and its heavily politicized legal system since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In addition to criticizing his sentence, the French Foreign Ministry urged the abolition of Russia’s laws on foreign agents, which subject those carrying the label to additional government scrutiny and numerous restrictions. Violations can result in criminal prosecution. The ministry said the legislation “contributes to a systematic violation of fundamental freedoms in Russia, like the freedom of association, the freedom of opinion and the freedom of expression.”
Vinatier is an adviser for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organization, which said in June 2024 that it was doing “everything possible to assist” him.
While asking the judge for clemency ahead of the verdict, Vinatier pointed to his two children and his elderly parents he has to take care of.
The charges against Vinatier relate to a law that requires anyone collecting information on military issues to register with authorities as a foreign agent.
Human rights activists have criticized the law and other recent legislation as part of a Kremlin crackdown on independent media and political activists intended to stifle criticism of the war in Ukraine.
In August 2025, Russian state news agency Tass reported that Vinatier was also charged with espionage, citing court records but giving no details. Those convicted of espionage in Russia face between 10 and 20 years in prison.
Russia in recent years has arrested a number of foreigners — mainly US citizens — on various criminal charges and then released them in prisoner swaps with the United States and other Western nations. The largest exchange since the Cold War took place in August 2024, when Moscow freed journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, fellow American Paul Whelan, and Russian dissidents in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.
