Monday, Jan. 20, 2025 | 9:53 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Bryan Yant, sergeant-at-arms of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, was loading his suitcase into his car, rushing his wife to get ready and preparing for the drive to the Harry Reid International Airport Saturday morning.
Then, he received a text.
The association’s feature in President Donald Trump’s inaugural parade in Washington had been cut.
The decision to slash the parade segment featuring over 20 association members was the result of the inauguration being moved indoors due to inclement weather. Temperatures were 26 degrees with wind gusts up to 31 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
The last-minute changes sent people who had flown to Washington into a scramble for new ways to celebrate the new administration.
“If it’s nasty weather and super cold, safety is the number one priority for everybody involved,” Yant said. “It’s disappointing. We’d like to be back there to represent Nevada and law enforcement, but nothing we can do about it.”
The event shifted inside to the U.S. Capitol Rotunda — a round room 96 feet in diameter that had no chance of fitting the tens of thousands of people who came from across the country.
“I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump wrote in a Friday social media post announcing the venue change. “It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th.”
The remaining portions were moved a mile away to the Capital One Arena, which has a capacity slightly above 20,000. Trump will head there following the swearing in.
The majority of those planning to attend were told their tickets now only held “commemorative” value – meaning the 220,000 distributed tickets were no longer valid for attending festivities in person. The inauguration was last held indoors for Ronald Reagan’s second term in 1985.
Yant said he was willing to brave the cold and march alongside banners recognizing the association and Metro Police.
“Pivot, move forward, and hey, I’ll try and watch as much as I can from the warmth of my house in Vegas,” Yant said.
Yant anticipates much of the money spent — which mostly came from members’ personal funds mixed with some costs that would have been covered by the association — will be returned. Some attendees, however, had already left for Washington.
Ed Williams, past president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Nevada, arrived at the nation’s capital before the news struck. His organization is a chapter among the country’s first group to represent LGBTQ conservatives, and he said he was eager to celebrate Republicans’ win in the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Williams instead opted for a watch-party with fellow Log Cabin members. Still, he said he is keeping his plans to attend the various balls and parties commemorating Trump reentering office.
“I was not particularly looking forward to standing on the National Mall for hours on end for the inauguration,” Williams said. “There’s part of me that’s a little bit happy, but of course, it would have been an epic event either way.”
Reno resident Jonathan Schenk booked tickets to travel to Washington in November, saying he was motivated by Trump’s election win. Trump won all of the swing states and the popular vote.
“Something’s different, something’s in the air — something that I want to get behind,” Schenk said to his fiancee at the time. “And, we just booked tickets right then for the flight, and then slowly started piecing the rest of it together. I just knew that I wanted to be here.”
Schenk attended a brunch for a group he had never heard of before: Moms for Liberty. Among the company — such as Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Betsy DeVos, Trump’s former secretary of education — Schenk saw a cause he wants to help grow when he returns to Reno.
Moms for Liberty is a conservative parental rights group that was founded in Florida in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Members often rally around eliminating mentions of gender and sexuality from classrooms and barring books they deem inappropriate from curriculum.
“We do plan to get involved with Moms for Liberty and I have a few friends in Reno that are very outspoken and smart and would be perfect for this type of thing,” Schenk said. “So I’m going to make some connections, and put some meetups together to try to help that grow in our area.”
While Schenk was among the thousands saddened to hear the event wouldn’t be outdoors, he decided the restructuring in the inaugural itinerary wouldn’t stop his plans.
“We just decided that no matter what, we’re going to be as close to it as we can be,” Schenk said. “If it’s blowing hard and snowing, 10 degrees or 15 degrees, whatever it’s going to be, we’re going to be out there supporting our president. He’s supported us.”