Trump Returns to the White House
What A Day
What A Day
4.8 • 166 Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today is Inauguration Day in DC. As of around noon ET, we will officially be living under a Donald Trump administration. Again. The president-elect's inaugural committee has raised a record $170 million for the ceremony and accompanying festivities — a huge jump from the then-record $107 million raised for Trump’s first inauguration. We talk to reporter Ilya Marritz, former co-host of the WNYC podcast ‘Trump Inc.,’ to explore the parallels between today’s inauguration and 2017.
And in headlines: TikTok restored service to its more than 170 million users in the U.S, a temporary ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect, and the federal government is rushing to develop a bird flu vaccine.
***Correction: In this episode we stated, "Inaugurating a president doesn't cost $170 million." This needs more context. It is true that, prior to 2017, a president's inaugural committee had never spent more than $100 million on inauguration events. Inaugural committees raise money from private donations. But a second pot of federal money covers the cost of services like security and cleanup. The Washington Post estimated the combined total for Trump's first inauguration likely cost between $175 million and $200 million.
Show Notes:
- 'The Harvard Plan' - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-harvard-plan-pt-1-a-president-on-trial/id1767012898?i=1000679405864
- 'Trump, Inc.' - https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trumpinc
- Check out Pod Save The World – crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-the-world/
- Support victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/relief
- Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8
- What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast
- Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/
- For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Monday, January 20th, inauguration day. |
| 0:05.2 | I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. |
| 0:06.9 | The show that remembers that it's also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day to honor a truly |
| 0:11.6 | American hero. |
| 0:12.9 | Happy birthday, Dr. King. |
| 0:19.8 | On today's show, TikTok goes dark in the U.S. for like half a day, but now it's back, but for how long? |
| 0:26.1 | And a tenuous ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas leads to the war's first meaningful pause in fighting in more than a year. |
| 0:33.0 | Today is inauguration day in D.C. And because it's apparently too cold for the typical outdoor ceremony, |
| 0:38.2 | President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance will be sworn in at the Capitol |
| 0:42.5 | Rotunda. Afterwards, Trump will hold a big party at Capitol One Arena in Chinatown. And yes, |
| 0:48.2 | that's the same Chinatown Trump seemed to believe was controlled by the country of China back in |
| 0:52.4 | in 2023. Anyway, there will be much pageantry. |
| 0:56.1 | Carrie Underwood will take a break from singing the theme to Sunday night football to sing |
| 0:59.7 | America the Beautiful. And then there's the Liberty inaugural ball, which will feature a cursed |
| 1:04.1 | combination of performances by the rapper Nelly, country singer Jason Aldeen, and disco band |
| 1:09.3 | The Village People. And there will be money. |
| 1:12.2 | Lots of money. |
| 1:14.0 | From Amazon to meta to cryptocurrency firms and high-level CEOs, |
| 1:18.2 | Trump's inauguration committee has pulled in $170 million, |
| 1:22.2 | nearly double the amount of money President Biden's inauguration did four years ago. |
| 1:26.3 | That reminded me of Trump's first inauguration, |
| 1:28.9 | which raised a then-record $107 million from a number of donors and resulted in multiple |
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