WASHINGTON — Kelly Mann stood outside Capital One Arena early Monday, squinting at the winter sun, leaning against a wagon of red MAGA hats and gaudy gold chains with the visage of Donald Trump, the soon-to-be-inaugurated president.
It was 23 degrees and sunny in the nation’s capital. That was an improvement, Mann said, from Sunday, when freezing rain and snow flurries fell on Washington.
“I mean, if it wasn’t so damn cold, it would still be cool to be here because Trump rallies are a party,” said the 57-year-old tchotchke salesman. “I’m a Trump guy through and through.”
Mann came all the way from the San Gabriel Valley’s La Verne to hawk his Trump trinkets outside the inauguration, which was moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda because of the frigid temperatures.
Most people who traveled to Washington to watch the event in person have been relegated to the Capital One Arena, a sports venue nearby, for a livestream of the official ceremony.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he planned to join the crowd at the arena for a modified presidential parade before finishing the day with a dizzying schedule of three inauguration balls.
Mann said he lived in Pacific Palisades as a child and that he was horrified by what he believed to be poor leadership by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass during the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Mann said of Trump: “Everybody’s on fire about him.”
And of California: “We’re going to turn this state red. Gavin Newsom should be finished after this.”
Still, Mann is a businessman. Over the weekend, he sold Women’s March paraphernalia and rainbow Pride flag gear outside a protest march on the National Mall.
Outside the sports arena, red MAGA caps, beanies and scarves covered the people in a long line waiting to get inside.
Inside the Capitol, members of a University of Nebraska-Lincoln choir, wearing bright red scarves repping their school, practiced the song “One Voice” — “This is the sound of voices two / the sound of me singing with you / helping each other to make it through.”
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