Good morning! Very cold and gusty today—a high of 24 with significant wind chills, and a low of 10 tonight. The sidewalks and roads are slippery. It’s Inauguration Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, and the Commanders are really, actually going to the NFC Championship game. Take a lot of deep breaths today; you’re going to need them. You can find me on Bluesky, and there’s a link to my email address at the bottom of this post.
I can’t stop listening to:
“Wants Needs” by Bartees Strange. Another strong song from the local artist’s forthcoming Horror LP. Weirdness lurks in those poppy guitars, and the lyric “I’ve tried to be grateful for living / While punching the top of a coffin” has been on my mind all weekend.
Here’s some Trump news you might have blocked out:
• Inauguration particulars: Expect long lines for Donald Trump‘s indoorguration viewing party/parade at Capital One Arena. Enter at 4th and H streets, Northwest, where you’ll be directed to a security screening point at 9th and G streets. Screening started at 7 AM. The inaugural committee directed the Park Service to remove Jumbotrons from the National Mall, so Capital One is your best bet for public viewing. The National Mall will be open between 3rd and 14th streets, though look out for crews dismantling inauguration infrastructure. The monuments will be open, but you’ll need to go through a security check for the World War I Memorial, because it’s inside the security perimeter. Here’s DC’s inauguration site, with lots of details.
• Trump will be sworn in at the US Capitol at noon. Tickets are impossible to get—even lawmakers aren’t sure they’ll get in. (Politico)
• His inaugural speech will be “more optimistic” than 2017’s, which is best remembered for the phrase “American carnage,” and he’ll call for a “revolution of common sense” and say the US is on the brink of a “thrilling new era of national success.” (WSJ)
• He plans to issue more than 200 executive orders ASAP. (Fox News). One will be about gender. (The Free Press) The federal workforce will get a lot of attention, and lawmakers plan more drastic changes. (Washington Post) The next President wants to make a show of power on his first day. He also “likes the idea of turning a room near the Oval Office dining room into a hangout space for his friends.” (NYT) • “No agency is considered safe, but there is perhaps none with a bigger target on its back than” the National Archives, Jason Leopold writes. (Bloomberg)
• The Village People closed Sunday’s rally at Capital One, where Trump promised to pardon January 6 rioters. (Washington Post) Outside, many of his most fervent fans lamented the weather-induced changes to inauguration festivities, while the rich and well-connected partied. (NYT)
• He also launched a cryptocurrency. (NYT)
The Best Thing I Ate Last Week, by Ann Limpert

The Kimmy at Legacy Hi-Fi
Last week, we sent our 100 Very Best Restaurants issue—the food team’s biggest project of the year— off to the printer. Burger time! I decided to hit up Legacy Hi-Fi (2471 18th St., NW), the new Adams Morgan bar with a delightfully bad-for-you menu from Mathew Ramsey. Ramsey, who once worked at Pineapple and Pearls and Tail Up Goat, wrote a cookbook nearly a decade ago called Pornburger, which tbh lives up to its title.
The sliders he makes at Legacy are downright delicious—smashies done up with miso-brown butter, pickles, mustard, and griddled onion. They’d easily have claimed this best-thing-I-ate slot, were it not for a simple little sandwich called the Kimmy. The toasted potato roll is stuffed with kimchi pimiento cheese, hot honey, and—genius move—Fritos.
Ramsey says the idea came from his childhood: “I was actually a bit of a picky eater, and pimento cheese was one of my go-to foods, that I would always enjoy with a side of Fritos.”
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• MAGA fans waited in long lines for Trump’s rally at Capital One yesterday. They had downtown to themselves.
• Need brunch plans for today? Here are some ideas.
• George Washington’s first inauguration suit is on view at Mount Vernon, and it’s…brown.
• Big scoop from Jessica Sidman: Workers at five upscale DC restaurants—Le Diplomate, St. Anselm, Pastis, Rasika Penn Quarter, and Modena—intend to unionize.
Local news links:
• Trump is back. The vibes in town are quite different this time. (Washington Post)
• Scenes from Saturday’s anti-Trump People’s March. (Washington Post)
• Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin ordered flags in the Commonwealth to be flown at full staff for Inauguration Day. (NBC4)
• What’s going to happen to DC’s $1.5 million inauguration stand? Not a whole lot. (Washington Post)
• The population in DC grew 2.3 percent over the past decade. DC government employment shot up 29 percent in the same timeframe. (Office of the District of Columbia Auditor)
• Jeff Bezos dined with Washington Post publisher Will Lewis and Executive Editor Matt Murray in Georgetown. (Ben Mullin)
• The barriers are down at the park near JD Vance‘s house in Del Ray. (Justin Wilson)
• Here we are now…and where is that again? A UVA study found that “members of Generation X had historically high levels of exposure to lead due to car exhausts with leaded gasoline.” (WTOP)
That’s it. Let’s get that day.
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