A father and son from California who spent US$3,000 to travel to Washington to watch Donald Trump become the 45th president of the United States say they don’t care what the naysayers think: They support him and are hopeful for positive change under his administration.

Dean Zellers and his son Bailey, 20, from Sonoma, Calif., received tickets to Trump’s inauguration from their congressman. The pair flew to Newark, N.J. and drove more than three hours to get to D.C. ahead of Friday’s ceremony.

Sporting a Trump hat, Bailey told CTV News Thursday that he’s excited to watch history unfold on Friday.

“It’s only going to happen twice – hopefully twice – but if it only happens once, we had to see it in person,” Bailey said of Trump’s inauguration. “It’s a big event.”

As a young Trump supporter, Bailey said he stands out among his co-workers.

But he doesn’t wade into disagreements with “Hillary” voters. “If they get all up in my face, I just say ‘Ok.’”

“I’m a big Donald Trump fan – whatever he says (is) great,” Bailey said. “He says it how it is and a lot of people don’t like it, but (for) people who know what he’s going to do, he’s going to be great.”

Bailey’s father Dean says there are multiple reasons why he voted for Trump in the U.S. election. He says the U.S. border has been “porous” for some time, and claimed previous presidents haven’t done anything to address the problem.

He added that he doesn’t think all “illegal” immigrants should be shut out of the U.S. “But we want to be able to control that border and I live in California. So in California, it’s a lot harder for us to control that piece of the border.”

Dean, an insurance broker, is also heartened by Trump’s stances on the U.S. military and affordable health care.

In general, Dean is hoping that Trump will “reunite this country. It’s very divisive at this point.”

He added that Trump isn’t even president yet, and he’s still “saying the right things” as far as his family is concerned.

“He’s not polished as I say, but he comes across to me as saying, ‘We’ll get through it and we’ll work it,’” Dean said.

On Friday, Dean said he and his son will be “somewhere” in the crowd to watch as Trump takes the oath of office.

Bailey, who has attended one of Trump’s rallies, said he’s looking forward to seeing him “in person” again.

“He gets everyone excited like in an action movie so it should be good to see him,” Bailey said, adding it will be “cool” to see Trump’s family at the inauguration.

With files from CTV News Channel senior producer Ramneek Gill

------

CTVNews.ca will deliver dedicated coverage of the inauguration on www.CTVNews.ca/Trump

On inauguration day, CTV News’s special live coverage will be available to everyone on all platforms at CTVNews.ca for desktop, tablet and smartphones and on the CTV News GO apps starting at 10 a.m. ET, with Lisa LaFlamme anchoring from Washington, D.C.