WASHINGTON — No Beyoncé. No Jon Bon Jovi. No U2. But no matter: For many of the hundreds gathering at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday afternoon for the preinaugural concert, the artists in the lineup were secondary to the chance to celebrate the coming presidency of Donald Trump.
And besides, several concertgoers said, if celebrity performers didn’t support Trump, there was no need for them to be here.
Standing by the memorial’s Reflecting Pool a few hours before the show, John Stephan, a 62-year-old retired banker, said he left California on Tuesday to be part of the festivities and snagged a ticket to the concert at the last minute. Calling himself a Trump supporter since “Day 1,” he said he and his wife felt that after attending rallies and watching the televised debates, it would have been wrong to be at home.
“We thought: ‘You know what? Let’s end this story and go to the inauguration,’ ” Stephan said.
As for the various entertainers who had snubbed the concert — or even said yes and then backpedaled — Stephan was dismissive.
“I think it’s sad when anybody says, you know, ‘My opinion of a person’s more important than let’s-just-get-the-country-going,’ ” he said.
There has never been a president crossing over so directly from the pop-culture world as Trump, who remains an executive producer of The Celebrity Apprentice and has cultivated big names in Hollywood for decades (even making a Home Alone 2 cameo). Yet those big names are shunning his inauguration, including today’s event, unlike the Lincoln Memorial concert in 2009 for Barack Obama that featured Beyoncé and other stars. The artists who are showing up are reflective of the cross-section of the United States that buoyed Trump to victory in November, while belying the opulence he is known for.
The concert — the “Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration” — will have a distinct country feel to it, with performances by Toby Keith, the biggest act on the bill, and Lee Greenwood, best known for “God Bless the U.S.A.,” Trump’s walk-on song during the campaign. Also on the bill are Sam Moore, one half of the soul duo Sam & Dave, and 3 Doors Down, an alternative rock band that hasn’t made the Billboard Top 10 chart since 2003. The Piano Guys, a group that includes one pianist and one cellist, are likely to regale the audience with spirited and eclectic covers of pop songs.
Kenny and Katherine Dunham decided to make the four-hour drive from Kinston, N.C., after hearing that Rep. John Lewis of Georgia would boycott Trump’s inauguration. The Dunhams were sitting on a blanket without a ticket, and neither seemed fazed by the lack of top-flight entertainers. (Visitors without tickets were able to view the show on the National Mall; those with tickets had seats near the concert stage.)
“I think if they don’t want to perform, they shouldn’t perform,” Kenny Dunham, 60, said. “But at the same time, my understanding is they weren’t asked to. Toby Keith is going to perform. Lee Greenwood is going to perform.”
His wife of 19 years agreed.
“I’m disappointed that they chose not to perform, like Jennifer Holliday,” Katherine Dunham added. “I feel that it’s an honor to be here in our capital.”
Lines to get into the show began forming in the morning. About 5,000 tickets were available, and the crowd by the memorial and on the Mall was expected to be smaller than the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out for the preinaugural concert in 2009. That celebration for Obama also featured Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx and Steve Carell. For Trump’s concert, the highest-profile actor scheduled to appear is Jon Voight.
Along the streets leading to the memorial, people pulled wagons full of homemade Trump merchandise, including Make America Great Again hats and Trump scarves. Rick Storm traveled in from Philadelphia with a backpack full of $10 T-shirts to sell.
By 1 p.m., he had sold only one T-shirt.
“I just started,” Storm said.
Ready for his big moment earlier today, Trump traded in his beloved private plane for a military jet today and swooped into Washington for three days of inaugural festivities. As the president-elect left New York behind, the capital braced for an onslaught of inaugural crowds and demonstrators numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence, in a tweet, called Inauguration Eve “a momentous day before a historic day,” as security barricades and blockades went up around Washington in preparation for Friday’s swearing-in ceremony and all of the hoopla and hand-wringing that comes with it.
“We are all ready to go to work,” Pence said at a morning news conference. “In fact, we can’t wait to get to work for the American people to make it great again.”
Trump’s first scheduled stop in Washington: a leadership luncheon bringing together inaugural officials, top Republican leaders in Congress, his Cabinet picks and top members of his new White House team.
Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he’d be putting on his “favorite DHS jacket” and taking to the streets to inspect security preparations for the inaugural festivities.
He told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that areas where inaugural crowds will congregate will be “extra fortified this year with dump trucks, heavily armored vehicles to prevent anybody who’s not authorized from being in the area from driving something in there.” He said there was “no specific credible threat” related to the inauguration.
Trump’s public schedule for the inaugural celebration starts with an afternoon wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery. Next, a welcome concert on the steps of Lincoln Memorial ending with fireworks.
The two-hour concert, open to the public, was to feature country star Toby Keith, soul’s Sam Moore, actor Jon Voight and The Piano Guys. Also performing: Lee Greenwood, DJ RaviDrums, 3 Doors Down, and The Frontmen of Country, featuring Tim Rushlow, Larry Stewart and Richie McDonald.
It won’t include singer Jennifer Holliday, originally announced as one of the headliners. She backed out after an outcry from Trump critics.
Before departing for Washington, Trump announced his final Cabinet choice: former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue for agriculture secretary. Spokesman Sean Spicer said the president-elect was continuing to make “edits and additions” to the inaugural address he’ll deliver at Friday’s swearing-in.
Never mind about Trump’s gilded private plane: He arrived on a Boeing 757 that is part of the fleet of military planes that become Air Force One whenever the president is aboard.
Ebullient Trump fans were ready for a three-day party.
Eighty-three-year-old Eleanor Haven, of Alexander City, Alabama, was among those drawn to Washington for what she said would be a “wonderful” inauguration. She and her son, Scott Haven, 56, said they had never been to an inauguration before, never even been to a political rally before attending a Trump “thank you” event in Alabama.
“He fought hard for the American people,” Scott Haven said, adding “I think he really has an earnest view of trying to help the working people of America and I think that’s the attraction of him.”
New York Republicans kicked off their inauguration festivities with a breakfast this morning at a downtown hotel.
The crowd, smushed into a ballroom to hear former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, roared as New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox boasted that a kid from Queens was going to be the next president of the United States.
“It’s going to be a remarkable couple of days,” Gingrich said. “Certainly this is the inauguration that no one in the news media was ready for.”
He went on to describe Trump as “part P.T. Barnum” and predicted he would be one of the country’s most accomplished presidents.
Keeping a wary eye on the weather forecast for Inauguration Day, the National Park Service announced that it was easing its “no umbrella” policy for Friday, allowing collapsible umbrellas along the parade route and on the National Mall.
First Published January 19, 2017, 8:55 p.m.
