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Inauguration Planner Says Event Features Greatest Celebrity: Trump

by Associated Press

   NEW YORK, NEW YORK --

   President-elect Donald Trump will take the traditional ride from the
   White House to the Capitol with his predecessor before his inauguration
   next week, but he will break from some of the day's other customs,
   trading traditional celebrity appearances for the "soft sensuality" of
   the historic event.

   Tom Barrack, a longtime Trump friend serving as his top inauguration
   planner, told reporters Tuesday at Trump Tower that the president-elect
   instructed him to make the swearing-in "about the people, not about
   him."

   "So what we've done, instead of trying to surround him with what people
   consider A-listers, is we are going to surround him with the soft
   sensuality of the place," Barrack said. "It's a much more poetic
   cadence than having a circus-like celebration that's a coronation. It
   will be beautiful. The cadence of it is going to be, 'Let me get back
   to work.'"

   Inauguration organizers have been rebuffed by several celebrities,
   among them British singers Charlotte Church, who wrote Tuesday on
   Twitter that while Trump's "staff have asked me to sing at your
   inauguration, a simple internet search would show I think you're a
   tyrant. Bye."

   FILE - Work continues on the stand for the inauguration of
   President-elect Donald Trump on the west front of the Capitol in
   Washington, D.C., Dec. 28, 2016.

   Rebecca Ferguson, a runner-up on The X Factor in the U.K., wrote on her
   website Tuesday that she, too, had declined to take part. She wrote
   that she would have only performed at the Jan. 20 inauguration if she
   were allowed to sing Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," a song that
   protested racism and the lynching of African Americans.

   The entertainers who have agreed to take part in the festivities are
   Jackie Evancho, of America's Got Talent, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
   and the Radio City Rockettes. No details have been announced for the
   official welcome concert on the eve of the inauguration, beyond a
   promise to feature "a diverse group of performers."

   Barrack, a private equity real estate investor, said Trump has opted to
   make the inauguration a celebration of everyday Americans and the
   military. He added that inauguration planners are "fortunate in that we
   have the greatest celebrity in the world, which is the
   president-elect."

   Since his election, including on his raucous "thank you" tour to states
   that helped deliver him the White House, Trump has made little effort
   to reach out to those who didn't vote for him. But Barrack said the
   president-elect wanted his inauguration to be a unifying event.

   "'The campaign is over, I am now president for all the people,"'
   Barrack said Trump told him. "'I want you to build a bridge and tie
   them back in. I was to heal the wounds and I want to get back to work
   on Saturday morning."'

   Barrack also confirmed that Trump and his wife, Melania, would visit
   with President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White
   House on Friday morning before riding together to the ceremony at the
   Capitol.