Trump fans endure frigid temps, sleet and snow for a chance to see president-elect

Supporters of Donald Trump massed in the nation’s capital this weekend to welcome back the president-elect – enduring lengthy drives, hours-long lines and punishing winter weather for a chance to share in Trump’s second win. 

Fox News Digital spoke to dozens of Trump backers who massed in and around the Capital One arena in Washington, D.C., to attend the “Make America Great Again” rally hosted by the president-elect Sunday night. 

The free event was a victory lap, both for the president and for his longtime fans. Rally-goers descended into Washington in droves – among the dozens of attendees interviewed, few were from the D.C.-area – but saw their endurance tested by the sheets of rain, sleet and snow that came in waves as temperatures plummeted, prompting D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to activate a city-wide hypothermia alert.

Supporters wait to enter the venue ahead of a President-elect Trump rally, the day before he is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19, 2025. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

Lines to get in the door wrapped around city blocks and weaved through miles of 10-foot fencing designed to block off roads and bolster security. Wait times were upward of three hours, according to some attendees. 

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Supporters of President-elect Trump attend a rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, the eve of Inauguration Day. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox News Digital)

One Indiana man who drove from the Hoosier State to D.C. for the rally said he camped out at 10 p.m. Saturday before the rally Sunday afternoon. In an interview with Fox News, he said he had no regrets about his decision – gesturing to the plum post he had secured, right next to the stage. 

He also wasn’t alone. Some 100 others had also opted to camp out, he estimated in the interview – a sense of camaraderie and commitment that was starkly on display in the Sunday rally. 

Supporters of President-elect Trump attend a rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox News Digital)

Though the event itself was held inside, the lines were massive, stretching as far as the eye could see, and subjecting all but a few donors and VIPs to hours of winding lines in the bitter winter cold.

Not one of the supporters interviewed expressed any regrets about the cold they endured – even the people who had waited upward of nine hours to get in the door. 

A supporter of President-elect Trump at Capital One Arena, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox News Digital)

“I’m just happy to be here,” one woman said alongside her partner, one of the last groups admitted into the rally, nearly six hours after doors opened to the public. 

The speech was Trump’s first in D.C. since Jan. 6, 2021. It saw a hodgepodge of performers with little in common: Two women who dubbed themselves “Girls Gone Bible” led the audience in a lengthy prayer for Trump, before Kid Rock jumped onstage for a raucous musical performance. 

Other speakers included Stephen Miller, who offered policy-focused remarks, UFC President and CEO Dana White, whose fiery remarks riled up the group, and Donald Trump Jr., whose children led the rally-goers in the Pledge of Allegiance before Trump took the stage.

A Trump supporter gives a thumbs up at Capital One Arena, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (Breanne Deppisch/Fox News Digital)

But if crowd size is to be measured as a sign of success, as Trump so often appears to see it, then his second term is poised to be met with sweeping approval from his base.

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“I’d do it again,” one Florida woman told Fox News Digital of the lines, crowds and stamina required for the duration of the hours-long rally. “I have no regrets.”