--- title: Why You Shouldn't Watch Donald Trump's Inauguration description: Televison ratings are a form of protest Trump might understand canonical: https://time.com/4637835/dont-watch-trump-inauguration/ author: Eddie S. Glaude Jr. article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-18T17:32:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:38:17.154Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why You Shouldn't Watch Donald Trump's Inauguration on TV og:description: Televison ratings are a form of protest Trump might understand og:url: https://time.com/4637835/dont-watch-trump-inauguration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fcb970389b0e4f4/6988b5e9ab6d7750e16ac806/trump6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: "The Apprentice" Season 6 Finale at The Hollywood Bowl og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why You Shouldn't Watch Donald Trump's Inauguration on TV twitter:description: Televison ratings are a form of protest Trump might understand twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9fcb970389b0e4f4/6988b5e9ab6d7750e16ac806/trump6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why You Shouldn't Watch Donald Trump's Inauguration on TV > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=4bd2fe68-203f-4905-8dcc-5b814b5ad7b7&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._  by [Eddie S. Glaude Jr.](https://time.com/author/eddie-s-glaude-jr/)  ## Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Jan 18, 2017 5:32 PM UTC  Donald Trump during "The Apprentice" Season 6 Finale in Hollywood. Donald Trump during "The Apprentice" Season 6 Finale in Hollywood. Mathew Imaging—Getty Images  by [Eddie S. Glaude Jr.](https://time.com/author/eddie-s-glaude-jr/)  ## Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Jan 18, 2017 5:32 PM UTC January 20, 2017, will be a pivotal day in American history. Donald J. Trump, the people’s billionaire, will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. I do not expect the heavens to cry out or the four horsemen of the apocalypse to appear as he raises his right hand. Elections are what they are, and they often leave us with bad outcomes and questionable people. But I do believe his inauguration will signal a dramatic and dark shift in the direction of the country. That’s about as nice as I can put it. My mother, who lives on the coast of Mississippi and doesn’t talk politics often, says it more baldly: “the country is going straight to hell.” Trump will enter office with the lowest approval rating in four decades. In [_The Wall Street Journal_, Janet Hook ](http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2017/01/10/unparalleled-resistance-looms-for-trump-after-the-inaugural/)detailed the unprecedented opposition that awaits him after the inauguration. More than [200,000 women](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/01/17/womens-march-washington-where-when-logistics/96156298/) will march in Washington the day after he takes the oath of office. Progressives throughout the country are mobilizing to resist what they see, with [every cabinet nomination](http://time.com/4635162/scott-pruitt-science-denial/) and senseless tweet, as a radical attempt to undermine any substantive idea of the public good. Millions of dollars are flowing to grassroots and established organizations to resist Trumpism. Meanwhile, many are saying, with Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, “I would prefer not to.” [Over 60 members of Congress](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/16/more-than-30-democratic-lawmakers-now-skipping-trumps-inauguration/?utm%5Fterm=.bd2d70470d67) have declared they will not attend the inauguration. Hollywood and the music industry have all but boycotted the event. Some, like Ashley Judd and Solange, will attend a “[Peace Ball](http://www.npr.org/2017/01/15/509937042/-peace-ball-takes-different-approach-to-inauguration-festivities)” at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture the night before Trump puts his hand on the Bible. The aim of the organizers is “to celebrate the accomplishments and successes of the last four years and vow to continue to be the change we want to see in the world” — a thumbing of the nose at Trump. These are the grand gestures. And I am sure Trump is more than annoyed by the fact that celebrities, high school bands, members of Congress and a host of others have refused to acknowledge and celebrate his ascendance to the highest office of the land. But what can everyday people who reject Trump do on January 20th? We should blank out: we should refuse to watch the Inauguration on television. Join the likes of [Robert Reich](http://robertreich.org/post/153401540180) and others and boycott Trump’s swearing-in. Engage in some sort of civic activity. Participate in the Facebook telethon and help raise funds for the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and Earthjustice. Spend time with the people you love. Disengage from the spectacle. Turn off the television. In my book, _Democracy in Black_, [I called for a blank-out campaign](http://time.com/4402823/glaude-hillary-clinton/) in the context of revitalizing democratic politics in black communities. I had grown tired of Democrats taking black voters for granted and Republicans exploiting our racial fears. If Democrats refused to address substantively the crisis in black communities, I argued, we should leave the presidential ballot blank and vote down ballot. To my mind — and I still believe this — something dramatic needed to happen. Well, Trump was elected and everything has been turned on its head. But the hope behind the blank-out campaign still holds. At its heart is the belief that whatever this America is, it isn’t democracy, and that we — those of us who reject the value gap and are genuinely committed to democracy — must dismiss the wrong-headed view that our only choices are the ones right in front of us. We have to dare to imagine our world differently. Small gestures, like turning off Trump’s Inauguration, are just the beginning. There is so much more that requires us to say, “I would prefer not to.” But lets start small, with the reality star who will be our president and who desperately wants our attention. Given Trump’s attention to polls, his craving for adulation, and his clear and present narcissism I can imagine that, of all the forms of protest on January 20th and afterwards, changing the channel on Inauguration Day might actually register. Let’s blank out, remembering its broader purpose. Let’s make this the lowest rated Inauguration in televised presidential history. Let’s turn our backs on the world that made him possible and be truly revolutionary. ## Transcript [00:04] MUSIC ] Every [00:10] year we choose the Person of the Year who is the [00:12] individual who has had the most influence on events [00:16] for better or worse. The Tod argue that [00:21] anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the [00:24] events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I [00:28] didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to [00:32] get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people [00:36] wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument [00:40] about whether his influence was for the better or for [00:43] the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces [00:47] the country came through this election season more [00:51] divided conspicuously publicly than at [00:56] any time through any election cycle that most of us Can [00:59] remember. [ MUSIC ] We're [01:04] gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna [01:07] have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I [01:10] believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS [01:14] or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the [01:17] same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the [01:19] election as opposed to from January 20th because the [01:23] stock market has had a tremendous bounce and [01:26] people are seeing very good things for business in this [01:28] country. [ MUSIC ] [01:32] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see [01:34] him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which [01:38] is the most austiontacious, imaginable [01:42] marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in [01:46] the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of [01:49] distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the [01:53] billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, [01:56] he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a [01:59] phony, that there have certainly been wealthy [02:01] politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over [02:04] backwards to make themselves appear like the [02:07] common man, or do anything that they could, eating [02:09] the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel [02:11] shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong [02:14] instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of [02:19] his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an [02:23] asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable [02:27] sitting down and answering questions, although he very [02:29] frequently does not remotely answer the question that [02:32] you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and [02:35] in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He [02:38] knows what he will and will not talk about and is [02:41] unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you [02:45] feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if [02:49] I play this tape back in four or eight years, the [02:53] office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very [02:58] humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that [03:01] loves this country, it's a very large [03:05] country, but it's also an even more powerful country [03:09] than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and [03:12] India, and you have others with more people, but, [03:15] when you look at what we do in this country, it's The [03:18] most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of [03:22] people think that Person of the Year just because the [03:24] nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there [03:27] have been years where we have recognized people's [03:31] whose influence has been altogether, unassailably [03:34] worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there [03:39] are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what [03:42] Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about [03:46] what his presidency means for them and for the [03:48] country. I think I would challenge them to suggest [03:52] that someone else this year had more influence than a [03:55] way greater Surprise than what he [04:00] did in 2016. 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