President Trump Leads Inaugural Parade Down Pennsylvania Avenue

President Donald Trump and his family made their way from the Capitol to the White House for the inaugural parade this afternoon.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

A big part of the pomp and circumstance of today is the inaugural parade that winds from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. NPR's Asma Khalid is in a good spot for watching that parade right near the White House. She's on the line now.

Hi, Asma.

ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Hey, how are you?

MCEVERS: Good. So tell us where you're standing.

KHALID: Well, I'm in one of the press risers that looks over the reviewing stand. That's on the north side of the White House, and it's where President Trump, the vice president and their families will be able to see the parade. So, you know, they sort of lead off the parade. So once they arrive - they haven't gotten here yet - they'll sit behind bulletproof glass here to watch the rest of it.

MCEVERS: And has anyone come by yet?

KHALID: None of sort of the big parade performances yet. We had a marching band that came by just prior to this and police escorts. But what was interesting is some of the sort of Trump administration officials or the picks for his Cabinet have come by. They enter just by foot into the walk - the parade stand.

So we saw Jeff Sessions, who's Donald Trump's pick for attorney general. He got a huge round of applause from the crowd, as did Ben Carson, his former rival who's now his pick for HUD.

MCEVERS: The head of this parade of course is Donald Trump's limousine. He and his family at one point got out and walked for a stretch. Let's listen to how the crowd reacted to that.

(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)

MCEVERS: And besides the Trump family and some of these nominees, who else is in the parade?

KHALID: So there's a - sort of a mix of college marching bands and high school marching bands. The boy scouts of America will be here as well. But, Kelly, one of the things that's been interesting is the inaugural committee expects about 8,000 participants. This is fewer than they've had, say, for President Obama's inaugural parade in 2009. And some of this is no doubt because Donald Trump was seen as being a really polarizing candidate during his campaign.

And so, you know, as I'm sure some of our listeners know, there's a historically black college in Alabama that sort of faced a lot of heat from alumni for agreeing to participate in the inaugural parade. And, you know, usually the city of Washington, D.C., has a public school or two who's marching band participates. And this year, no Washington, D.C., public schools are sending a marching band either to the parade.

MCEVERS: You were walking around the area earlier today. What else did you see?

KHALID: So, Kelly, I was on the streets around the White House prior to the kickoff of the parade. And it was sort of this really surreal moment where you would turn your head right, and you'd see supporters of Donald Trump, you know, wearing those make America great again hats. And you'd turn your head left, and you'd see people with protest signs saying dump Trump.

And I had stopped into a coffee shop just so I could physically see the inaugural address on the screen. And I was in there with some Trump supporters. And at that moment, we had protesters come down H Street, which is one of the streets real close to the White House, protesting Donald Trump's inaugural speech. There's sort of two very, very different experiences for folks at the same time.

MCEVERS: NPR's Asma Khalid near the end of the inaugural parade route at the White House, thank you.

KHALID: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF DIRTY PROJECTORS SONG, "ABOUT TO DIE")

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