• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, January 17, 2017

Donald Trump’s inauguration this Friday is becoming an ominous microcosm of his campaign. It will likely preface an unstable and contentious four years.

Masses of demonstrators are expected to descend upon Washington, D.C., in protest. City officials report that significantly more buses have applied for parking spots in the capital’s largest lot for Saturday, when the women’s march is taking place, than have been sought for Trump’s inauguration on Friday.

The protests won’t be limited to the streets.

A number of lawmakers have made their feelings about the president-elect crystal clear. As of today, at least 40 Democratic lawmakers plan to skip, or as some have said, “boycott” the inauguration of our 45th president.

Donald Trump had a chance to lower tensions after Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) spoke out against the president-elect, calling him “illegitimate,” citing Russian interference in the election. Instead of reacting on Twitter, Trump could have ignored Lewis’ claim in a dignified manner.

He especially should have refrained from making uninformed and stereotypical comments about the Congressman’s district.

The Lewis-Trump feud has thrown even more kindling on the fire of what will prove to be a volatile inauguration weekend.  Lewis is being joined by various other legislators in his boycott of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Some are choosing to skip proceedings precisely because of how Trump handled the Lewis comment.

Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA) told Don Lemon on CNN last night that she decided to miss the inauguration because of Trump’s conduct over the weekend. “When I heard that Trump denigrated and disrespected the greatest civil rights leader of our time, I couldn’t believe it.” Having the fight on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend “was the last straw.”

The country is in for a wild ride on Friday and over the weekend, an apt foreshadowing of what many expect the Trump presidency to be: an endless battleground on the domestic and global stage.

“These inaugurations tend to reflect the character, personality and aspirations of the person preparing to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Timothy Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University, told The Washington Post. “It would be un-Trumpian for there not to be some spectacle.”