Trump responds to celebs’ boycott of inauguration by bringing Army cavalry and law enforcement

On January 20th the US capitol will host the 58th Presidential Inauguration parade with an attendance limited to 15,000.

While many celebrities have publicly voiced their intent to boycott the Inauguration events, Trump’s team insisted their number one guest is the “American people.”

“The inaugural is not Woodstock. It’s not summer jam. It’s not a concert,” Boris Epshteyn, director of communications for the Inaugural Committee, told CNN in December.

Returning the event to its more traditional roots, the event will host Border Patrol officers, police color guards, high school and university marching bands, Boy Scouts, equestrian corps, first responders, wounded warriors, veterans, caissons battalions and pipe and drum corps.

During the first organized parade in 1809, at the Inauguration of James Madison, a troop of cavalry from Georgetown escorted him to the Capitol.  Trump has reportedly invited the 1st Cavalry Division Horse Cavalry Detachment of Fort Hood to be among the 8,000 participants of the inaugural parade.

Throughout American history it has not been uncommon for Presidents to include military units in the parade.  The parade, which used to occur during the procession to the Inaugural ceremonies, will follow the searing-in ceremony.

In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant conducted a review of the troops from a stand in front of the White House after the swearing-in ceremony.   In 1881, a single military division escorted President-elect Garfield to the Capitol, and the full parade occurred after the Inauguration.

“I’d like to see the inaugural completely celebrity-free. Wouldn’t that be refreshing? No endless parade of Kardashians or housewives, real or imagined. No supposedly funny parodies by Alec Baldwin. No endless yadda-yadda from Stephen Colbert. No words of wisdom from Barbra Streisand. Just a few patriotic tunes from a Marine Corps band and a man swearing on, yes, a Bible,” wrote Roger Simon, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ media, in an oped last week.

While the media has focused on the celebrities’ boycott of the event, it seems Trump’s Inauguration committee had no plans to involve them in the events anyway.

“The so-called ‘A’ list celebrities are all wanting tix to the inauguration, but look what they did for Hillary, NOTHING. I want the PEOPLE!” Trump recently said on twitter.

Nearly 250,000 color-coded tickets, with multiple security features to prevent counterfeiting, have been  printed by the Government Publishing Office (GPO).  Tickets will start being disseminated to members of the House of Representatives on Monday, January 9 and Senators on Tuesday, January 10.