WASHINGTON — A president's inaugural address is typically a choreographed spectacle. A makeshift grandstand is erected next to the Capitol, hundreds of thousands of people line the National Mall and the images and words of the day endure for generations.
This time was different. Forced inside to the Capitol Rotunda by frigid temperatures, Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term as president in an intimate setting for a man who has always favored the largest one possible.
The day's pomp and unusual circumstances made for a lot of close-up encounters between political combatants, some awkward, some not.
It also made for a pecking-order configuration for attendees — top-level guests in the Rotunda and several hundred other VIPs watching from another room at the Capitol, as well as thousands of Trump supporters at a local arena outside the grounds of Congress.
Associated Press reporters, photographers and videographers were in all those rooms, as part of a pool arrangement typically used to cover proceedings in confined spaces. Such arrangements give a selection of news organizations access to events on condition they provide material to others.
IN THE ROTUNDA
On Monday, the center of the action was in the gleaming, circular space of statues and history.
The tableau bore little resemblance to what would have been on the outside. Seated closely behind Trump in prime seats was a tight clutch of some of the richest people in the world, tech titans all, including Trump's adviser Elon Musk, with a combined net worth near $1 trillion. They had better seats than the men and women Trump has tabbed for his Cabinet.