‘Like winning the Super Bowl:’ KIRO Newsradio host gets firsthand look at Trump inauguration

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the U.S. on Monday and KIRO Newsradio host John Curley was there to witness his inauguration.

John, host of “The John Curley Show,” on KIRO Newsradio flew to Washington D.C. to attend the historic event. He joined “The Gee and Ursula” show live on Monday to provide an update.

“It was important for me to be here because, one, I have the financial ability to fly myself and Nicole Thompson, here, it is a historic moment, not since Grover Cleveland has somebody come back again, and Donald Trump, whether you like him or not, you really have to admire the tenacity of this guy coming back,” John shared.

He added he couldn’t find any Democrats but saw one lady dressed as the Statue of Liberty, but said she didn’t want to talk to him.

However, everyone else, John said was there to celebrate.

“It’s like the old college football games your team wins, just storm the field and tear down the goalpost,” he shared. “I mean, that’s kind of the feeling that you have without tearing any goalpost down. So, everybody here feels as if they’re sort of resetting, taking the country back, giving Trump a better chance this time around.”

Teen drove for hours to attend Trump inauguration

John said he spoke to many young people, with one 18-year-old driving for around 20 hours straight and running off 30 minutes of sleep to attend the inauguration.

He also compared the event to the Super Bowl.

“I’m sitting there watching it on the big screen, and to me, watching Trump give that speech and seeing the Biden folks sitting there, that looked like winning the Super Bowl,” he said. “And then, ‘OK folks, before we get started, in the locker room, we’re gonna invite the coach in the winning the losing team in there.’ And then you just stand there, and, the coach on the losing team is standing there while you are just pronouncing everything you’re going to do right for this time, or everything you did, everything terrible the other team did.”

KIRO Newsradio’s Angela Poe Russell asked if the people who traveled to the event were satisfied with the new accommodations after the event was moved from outdoors to indoors.

“No,” John said.

“I talked to this one guy from Chicago who said to me, ‘We’ll sit for a football game that’s 10 degrees below zero. There’s 63,000 of us there. If you don’t like the cold, then don’t go to the game,'” he shared. “People I’ve spoken to, even a number of elected officials, that said they did not believe the weather was the concern. I think they truly believed they could not secure the safety of the citizens and for the elected officials that would all be there in one place.”

Tens of thousands left outside in cold

John told “The Jake and Spike Show” he didn’t think the event was well organized.

“We went to the rally after waiting 10 hours in line to finally get in there with the 20,000 people. And they think they left anywhere between 15 and 20,000 people out in the cold,” he said.

John also said he thought the worst part of Trump’s speech was when he brought up TikTok.

“What he said, ‘So I’m going to help TikTok, I like TikTok, how many people here like TikTok?’ I think like, four people raised their hands,” he recalled.

According to The Associated Press, Trump is planning to crack down on the U.S. southern border. The media outlet reported an app called CBP One, which has allowed nearly 1 million people to legally enter the U.S. with eligibility to work, has already stopped working.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X and email her here.

Listen to “The Gee and Ursula Show“ weekday mornings from 9 a.m.- noon on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Listen to “Jake and Spike” weekdays from noon-3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.