Logan Church: America’s left and right are both holding their breath

With President-elect Donald Trump set to take office once again on Tuesday, 1News US Correspondent Logan Church takes a look at how people are feeling ahead of inauguration day.

On the chilly streets of downtown Manhattan, about a thousand people gathered to march.

When I arrived cardboard lay scattered around, people feverishly writing protest signs.

“We're Not Going Back,” one person wrote, a campaign slogan for Vice-President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential bid.

There was a “New York Hates Trump”.

“I’ve Seen Smarter Cabinets At Ikea #notmypresident”.

Others were blunter.

“F*** This S*** Again.”

There was an eclectic mix of people – some there fighting for women’s reproductive rights, others protesting what they believe to be the degrading of protections for the rainbow community.

One guy introduced as a “self-appointed town crier” delivered an Australian anti-Vietnam war speech that someone eventually interrupted with a “wrap it up.”

To put it mildly, the people there came from all walks of life.

The mood in centres like New York seemed almost sombre nowadays, these liberal bastions of America almost seeming to brace ahead of what many believe will be a Category-Five Hurricane Trump.

“Trump is putting people in power like Elon Musk, people who don't politics they are just rich,” one protestor, Maddie, told me. “I don't think that's okay. I think our country is going to change for the worse.”

Another, wielding toilet brushes with figures of Donald Trump attached to them, was equally worried.

“It's important right now that we show that we care and that we are not going to let go of our concerns,” said Laurie.

“We are standing strong against Trump's horrible, horrible policies. We don't know what's coming.”

In Washington DC, larger numbers met on the iconic mall, not far from where Donald Trump will be sworn in – again – as President in just a couple of days' time.

Although smaller today, the marches echoed a large protest movement that erupted in the days leading up to Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

“He unfortunately won the election,” one man told the Associated Press. “And so we're not going to react the same way the Republicans did four years ago. But we still get a say as to what's going on in this country. And this is the day to do that.”

He refers to the events of January 6, 2021, when a large mob of Donald Trump’s supporters violently broke into the US Capitol to stop the previous year’s election result from being certified.

But others are holding their breath for a totally different reason – they think Trump will save the country.

While thousands of people protested today, many more thousands of Trump’s supporters are expected to be in Washington DC over the next few days to witness – now from a nearby arena given the freezing weather – Trump taking the oath of office for a second time.

We’ll be there talking to them about their hopes and dreams for them under Trump’s promised “golden age” for America – watch this space.

But today, at these protests, they marched because they felt they had no choice.

Since the election, many people have written to me angrily, furious that the media keeps calling Trump’s victory a landslide when he only received 49.9% of the popular vote.

However, the popular vote means nothing in this country.

Trump decisively beat Harris in the Electoral College 312-226 – and that is where it matters.

Trump has a strong mandate to govern, and he knows it.

America well and truly feels like it’s holding its breath.