Confrontation brewing between Trumpists, opponents as 19 lawmakers say they will boycott inauguration

WASHINGTON: Protests, demonstrations and political boycotts will tangle with festive carousing and celebratory parties in Washington DC this week, setting the tone for four antagonistic years between supporters and opponents of billionaire deal-maker Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20.

Some 20 Democratic lawmakers have announced that they will shun the new President’s oath-taking ceremony, a nearly 240-year ritual that typically begins a post-election political healing amid a peaceful transfer of power. There will be protest marches by women and minorities resentful of what some consider a stolen election, even as the victorious pro-Trump brigade will roll into town to party, including a group of motorcycle enthusiasts going under the banner - Bikers for Trump.

Not since

George Bush

’s controversial win over

Al Gore

in 2000 has the city been so wound up with tense anticipation over potential political clashes. While tens of thousands of people are expected to stream into town for the victory party, many will also decamp to get away from it all.

Among them will be a score of Democratic lawmakers who are yet to reconcile to Trump’s electoral college win that was undermined by his 3 million popular vote deficit against Hillary Clinton, leading one Congressman, civil rights legend

John Lewis

to question Trump’s legitimacy. Typical of his abrasive response, Trump lashed out at Lewis on Twitter, asking him to take care of his own "crime-infested district" that is "falling apart" and mocking him for being all talk and no action.

It turned out to be a bad move. Across the political spectrum, activists were quick to point out that Lewis, a Georgia lawmaker, is a civil rights hero whose record of public service stands in sharp contrast to Trump’s narcissistic life centered on enriching himself. A chastened Trump toned down his criticism, urging Lewis to "focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the US," and adding, "I can use all the help I can get!"

But humility or asking for help is not a Trump characteristic, and the damage was already done. In fact, the well-chronicled gracelessness of the President-elect on Twitter and elsewhere has set the stage for a contentious start to his term between his supporters on one side and Democrats and the liberal media -- which some Trump aides see as being in cahoots.

Over the weekend, the largely liberal Washington press corps was in a tizzy over a proposed move to shift the

White House

press room outside of the Presidential mansion to a building next door (called the Old Executive Building) or further beyond to the

White House Conference Center

across from Lafayette Square.

The political media has enjoyed access to the White House going back a century, with the regular White House press corps given work space next to the West Wing in a press room that was created during the time of Richard Nixon. But the room is small and cramped (with only 49 seats, mostly assigned to the legacy media). Even some journalists have resented the current arrangement that allows random pretenders posing as reporters to snag space and credentials.

Trump transition officials are now said to be considering a possible relocation of the press room, citing the huge interest in covering the new President. According to the President’s new press spokesperson Sean Spicer, the transition team had thousands of requests from the media to attend Trump’s first press conference and they had to cap it at 400. The incoming administration, he says, is now examining the opportunity to potentially allow more members of the media to cover Trump by considering moving the press room to a bigger space.

But the scuttlebutt is the new dispensation also wants to revoke the press corps "sense of entitlement" given that the media is largely liberal and leans Democratic (a fact recorded in polls and surveys).

"They are the opposition party," one Trump aide told

Esquire

. "I want 'em out of the building. We are taking back the press room."