Watching Trump’s Inauguration from the Cheap Seats

Past the seats reserved for dignitaries, out beyond the point where Donald Trump was discernible from a distance, people huddled around the Jumbotron, like tailgaters around the grill. The mood was giddy and informal, a contrast to that of the protesters far away and the forced bonhomie of Republicans and Democrats onstage at Trump’s Inauguration. Someone lit a joint, and teen-agers in green-camouflage Trump hats giggled at the aroma. The sky was dishwater-gray, spitting rain, but nobody complained. In the “non-ticketed” sections of the National Mall, where Trump’s supporters had room to roam and marvel at their achievement, Washington felt, for a few hours, like home.