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What Will The Inauguration Theme Be?

by Chris Tognotti
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The inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump is now less than one month away, and his impending ascension to the presidency is causing serious anxiety and fear among countless progressives, centrists, and anti-Trump conservatives. But there's no stopping it now ― despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by millions, Trump rightfully won the Electoral College, which stood behind him despite vocal public calls to defect. And so, all that's left until Jan. 20, 2017 is to ponder that day. For instance: will Trump's inauguration have a particular theme, and if so, what will it be?

Fortunately, in the grand scheme of Trump-related queries, this is very easily answered, and you might even be able to guess it off the top of your head. That's because, if you followed his campaign with any attentiveness over the last several months, rest assured you already know what the inauguration's theme will be. That's right ― "Make America Great Again." It was announced by the Trump transition this week, and it comes as no shock, having been the signature slogan of his candidacy, emblazoned across all those red baseball caps.

More broadly, however, as Trump inaugural chairman and Colony Capital CEO Tom Barrack told ABC News, the theme will be "a cross cut of harmony of America and normal Americans that reflects on them, not on the power and prestige of this man."

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Beyond the question of theme, however, the Trump inauguration has hit a fair amount of snags and stumbles so far, mostly relating to the reported inability of the president-elect and his team to convince top talent to appear.

It's no shock that many high-profile celebrity figures are shying away from performing, if not outright refusing to. The entertainment world tends to skew liberal, and even more so than would be true for a typical Republican president, what Trump represents is anathema to countless brands, both corporate and personal alike. Also, needless to say, the threat of boycotts or tarnished reputations for those who do show up is probably a factor ― one of the groups that has agreed to perform, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is now under considerable public pressure to withdraw.

Trump has insisted on Twitter that he doesn't care about drawing celebrities out to his big day, and you can judge for yourself whether that seems credible. But this much seems clear: if you tune into the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, and the cameras do a sweeping pan of the assembled crowd, you're likely to see an awful lot of people wearing those bright red MAGA hats.

After all, it was a unique brand of hard-charging, unapologetic, and it must be said, often racist and xenophobic populism that brought Trump to this point, and there's no particular reason to think that he'd switch up the core themes in his moment of ultimate triumph.