WASHINGTON – Donald Trump will be sworn in as president in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Monday, after the forecast bitter cold prompted planners to move the ceremony under the building’s neoclassical dome for the first time in four decades.
That shift means that Trump will take the Oath of Office in the 96-foot (29 m) across, 180-foot (55 m) high sandstone hall at the Capitol’s center, the same spot where some of his supporters rioted on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Here’s a look at Jan. 6-related events that played out in the Capitol Rotunda.
- Rioters smashed windows as they battled police to fight their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6, doing what the Architect of the Capitol estimated was about $1.5 million worth of damage to the building. Some carried flags and wore red MAGA hats, others dressed in helmets, gas masks and tactical vests, mugged for photos. Rioters climbed onto statues, including of former Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
One man was photographed walking through the Rotunda carrying off the lectern used by the speaker of the House of Representatives, then Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
- The next day, Democratic then-Representative Andy Kim stopped on his way to work, kneeling down on the Rotunda’s floor to pick up garbage left behind by rioters. Kim was elected to the U.S. Senate in November.
- Crews scrambled for days to repair damage, and clear the remnants of chemical irritants fired by police in the battle as they prepared for Democratic President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
- When the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump a second time over his conduct on Jan. 6, nine House Democrats formally triggered the start of his trial on Jan. 25, 2021, when they carried the charges back through the Rotunda, delivering them to the Senate for trial. Trump was ultimately acquitted in the Senate.
- Former U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who fought with rioters on Jan. 6 and died the following day, lay in honor in the Rotunda — a recognition usually reserved for senior elected officials on Feb. 3, 2021.
He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for defending lawmakers, which his parents, Charles and Gladys Sicknick, accepted on Dec. 6, 2022. They pointedly declined to greet the Senate and House of Representatives then-top Republicans, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy.
- Trump returned to the Capitol for the first time since the riot on Jan. 9, 2025, stopping in the Rotunda to pay his respects to former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Dec. 29.
