--- title: Donald Trump Not the First to Have Lincoln Memorial Party description: Donald Trump spoke too hastily when he said it was “very seldom” for presidents to celebrate their inaugurations at the Lincoln Memorial canonical: https://time.com/4640346/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-20T00:07:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:38:04.111Z article:section: Politics og:title: No, Donald Trump Isn’t the First to Celebrate Inauguration at Lincoln Memorial og:description: "I don’t know if it's ever been done before, but if it has, very seldom." Wrong. og:url: https://time.com/4640346/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0333ff82d3c04a9d/6988b64ea988ca76d16bab1b/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP-CONCERT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: No, Donald Trump Isn’t the First to Celebrate Inauguration at Lincoln Memorial twitter:description: "I don’t know if it's ever been done before, but if it has, very seldom." Wrong. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0333ff82d3c04a9d/6988b64ea988ca76d16bab1b/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No, Donald Trump Isn’t the First President to Celebrate His Inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 20, 2017 12:07 AM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania arrive to attend an inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on Jan. 19, 2017. President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania arrive to attend an inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on Jan. 19, 2017.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 20, 2017 12:07 AM UTC [President-elect Donald Trump](http://time.com/4640317/donald-trump-inauguration-concert-speech/?xid=homepage) may haven spoken too hastily when he said it was “very seldom” for incoming U.S. presidents to celebrate their inaugurations at the Lincoln Memorial. The incoming commander-in-chief had been touting the thousands of supporters who showed up to watch him speak Thursday when he made the remarks at a “Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration.” Toby Keith and Three Doors Down were among the musical acts at the concert. “So many people have poured into Washington, D.C. This started out tonight being a small, little concert, and then we had the idea maybe we’ll do it in front of the Lincoln Memorial. I don’t know if it’s ever been done before, but if it has, very seldom,” Trump said. However, both of his predecessors have hosted inaugural events at the Lincoln Memorial. President Barack Obama held a star-studded [celebration](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99389770) (including Beyonce and Bruce Springstein) at the national monument in 2009\. He followed suit from President George W. Bush who held his [inaugural opening ceremony](https://www.c-span.org/video/?161983-1/inaugural-opening-ceremony) on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 2001. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4640346/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4640346/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial/"},"headline":"No, Donald Trump Isn’t the First President to Celebrate His Inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial","datePublished":"2017-01-20T00:07:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:38:04.111Z","description":"Trump said, \"I don’t know if it's ever been done before, but if it has, very seldom\"","url":"https://time.com/4640346/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0333ff82d3c04a9d/6988b64ea988ca76d16bab1b/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0333ff82d3c04a9d/6988b64ea988ca76d16bab1b/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-CONCERT","caption":"President-elect Donald Trump and his wife Melania arrive to attend an inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on Jan. 19, 2017.","creditText":"BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4640346/donald-trump-lincoln-memorial/","name":"No, Donald Trump Isn’t the First President to Celebrate His Inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial"}}]}] ```