Inside the Capitol Rotunda where Trump was sworn in

WASHINGTON – Instead of looking out over a sea of ​​people as he took his oath of office on Monday, President Donald Trump raised his right hand in front of an elite — and largely enthusiastic — crowd packed inside the Capitol Rotunda.

A chant of “USA! USA!” erupted as Trump and Vice President JD Vance stood to acknowledge the applause after Trump took the stage to become the second person in history to serve two non-consecutive terms as president.

With Democrats still stinging from their loss to a political foe they thought they had vanquished four years ago, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the Inaugural Ceremonies Committee, offered a bipartisan message.

“All of us are in a position of responsibility … to look at others with a generosity of spirit despite our differences,” she said in her opening remarks.

But Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Grahamreferred to the years Trump was out of office as “pretty dark.”

“Look what God has done,” he concluded as Republicans in the room cheered.

Trump, after taking his oath, declared that “America’s golden age is beginning right now,” earning a standing ovation from Republicans when he said God saved his life for a reason.

“Yes!” members of the crowd shouted.

Outgoing President Joe Biden appeared to laugh as Trump said his inauguration will be considered “liberation day.”

Long before the ceremony started, a few Republican House members — including Reps. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Brian Babin, R-Texas, and Michael Guest, R-Miss.—around the ornate round room as they chatted and checked out front seats reserved for high-profile guests. Those who earned the best views included former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other international politicians.

“Do not move seat cards,” instructed a list of etiquette rules located on each of the approximately 600 folding chairs. The rules also required those with seats on the stage to refrain from holding up phones or other recording devices when Trump was sworn in. Those in the general audience showed no such restraint.

The first guests to take their seats were former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The relationship between McConnell and Trump has been as strained at times as the weather that forced the inauguration indoors.

The red scarves wrapped around the necks of the members of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Combined Choir might have originally been planned for the ceremony’s traditional location, the Capitol’s West Front.

The choir filled the air with the harmonies of “One Voice” in an interlude before the room began to fill.

Designed to evoke the Pantheon, the rotunda’s curved sandstone walls are divided by fluted Doric pilasters with wreaths of olive branches carved into the frieze above.

Massive paintings depicting scenes from the nation’s early history—the creation of the Declaration of Independence, General George Washington resigning his military commission, the discovery of the Mississippi River—ring the room.

Statues of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant stood guard behind the blue carpeted platform where Trump became president for the second time.

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, had been chatting on stage while waiting for the event to begin. Trump tapped Ramaswamy to lead Ministry of Government Efficiencyor DOGE, with Elon Musk. But he is expected to announce soon that he is running for governor or Ohio.

Republican representatives Nathaniel Moran of Texas, Laurel Lee of Florida and Juan Ciscomani of Arizona were among the lawmakers taking selfies.

Many others took videos of themselves speaking to voters at home. The tickets lawmakers had given out to voters to attend the outdoor event became a memorial when the ceremony was moved indoors.

‘Bumped’ What Trump fans who traveled to DC did instead of watching the inauguration

These kinds of events are a potent reminder of the pecking order for members of Congress. House members were packed back against the wall near the small group of reporters allowed to attend. Senators get their own seat to the right of the rotunda.

Tech CEOs Musk, Shou Chew, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai had better seats at Trump’s inauguration than most of those he nominates to be in his cabinet. Members of Congress could not bring their spouses, but tech executives could, drawing more attention to the role these billionaires could have in the new administration.

Others in the room were Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer who was disbarred for repeatedly making false claims about the 2020 election, and Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News. Several current and former Fox employees are joining the administration.

All nine members of the Supreme Court attended, as did former Justice Stephen Breyer.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh administered the oath of office to Vance, whose wife, Usha, clerked for Kavanaugh when he served on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

Usha Vance, who held her daughter in her arms during her husband’s swearing-in, also clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts.

When technical difficulties forced country music star Carrie Underwood to sing “America the Beautiful” a capella, she asked the audience to join her — clapping her approval at the end of the song.

The new pecking order was obvious when the speaker asked everyone in the rotunda to remain seated until Trump departed.

As Trump’s family filed out, former President Bill Clinton shook hands with everyone. Hillary Clinton and Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, appeared to be having a moment.

Trump and Vance were heading to the Capitol Visitors Center, where Trump could address hundreds of supporters who had had to watch his inauguration from afar.

“You’re a younger, much prettier crowd than I’ve just spoken to,” Trump told the roaring crowd, joking that his comments were off-the-record so the “big shots” who had been in the rotunda , would not think “you are more powerful than them.”

Trump also told the audience that they would have been “very unhappy” if the ceremony had been held outside because previous audiences have often had to suffer under the weather in January.

“There was no suffering in that room,” he said. “It was perfect.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump took the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda