Hawaii supporters of President-elect Donald J. Trump are bracing for chilly weather and some anti-Trump demonstrations when they travel to Washington, D.C., this week to watch the billionaire sworn in Friday as the 45th president of the United States.
They are also preparing for the official inaugural ball, parade and tours of Washington landmarks as part of Hawaii supporters’ celebration of Trump’s rise to the peak of power.
Nathan Paikai, chairman of the Trump campaign in Hawaii, said he is “overwhelmed” by the opportunity to visit the nation’s capital and be a part of history.
“Who am I? This Hawaiian from Hawaii who gets to walk in the same place as where the first Republican, Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, (walked), to watch God bless our people,” Paikai said. “And what I mean by ‘people,’ I’m not just talking about Hawaiians; I’m talking about everybody, including you.”
Kalanianaole was a Hawaiian prince who served for 19 years as a Republican delegate to Congress and introduced both the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and the first bill for Hawaii statehood.
Paikai, a preacher who describes himself as “the prophet,” said he received a divine message about Trump early in the campaign.
“The Lord told me even before the president-elect decided to run that he would win, that he would run, that he would win the primary and that he would win, and I’m just overwhelmed that it all came to pass,” Paikai said.
This is Paikai’s first trip to the Capitol, and he said staff with U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s office arranged to take him and his wife, Judy Franklin, on a tour of Washington landmarks. Paikai leaves for Washington today.
Warner Kimo Sutton, a member of the leadership team for the Trump campaign in Hawaii, estimated that 70 to 80 people from Hawaii will make the trip to Washington this week to be part of the event.
Many of the inaugural events will be free because Trump’s inaugural committee has raised a record
$90 million in corporate and other private donations, Sutton said.
Sutton attended the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, which involved standing outside in 40-degree weather in piercing, cold rain. He said he has been shopping at thrift stores for cold-weather gear.
Sutton believes Trump’s inauguration has special political significance because it will dramatize Trump’s continuing ability to shrug off criticism from his opponents. “Everything they put out is an attack and won’t be listened to,” Sutton said of Trump’s detractors.
“What the left and the media … have done, especially the fake news and the attacks the last few weeks have shown, that none of them have been successful or none of them stuck,” Sutton said. “Sticking is the whole problem for the left, trying to make something stick, and he’s becoming more and more the type of person that it doesn’t stick; he’s Teflon.”
According to an analysis by The New York Times, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won a larger share of the vote in Hawaii than in any other state in the nation, winning 62.2 percent here, not counting blank votes. Trump won only 30 percent of the vote in Hawaii.
Some believe those vote totals will encourage Trump to punish Hawaii for its resistance to his candidacy, and the state could suffer a loss of federal projects or funding during the Trump administration. Sutton strongly disagreed.
“That’s similar to being fake news, a distraction from what’s going to happen,” Sutton said. “He could care less about this individual state. … He’s trying to help the country get better.”
Sutton contends the Trump administration will be good for Hawaii and may be able to help with Hawaii’s high cost of living by repealing the Jones Act to reduce the cost of shipping. That act generally requires that goods shipped between
U.S. ports be carried on
U.S.-flagged ships.
The new administration may also be able to help reduce the high cost of health care and provide high-paying jobs here by establishing a federal laboratory here, he said.
“I think the distraction of saying that (Trump) will try to retaliate against Hawaii is ridiculous,” Sutton said. That kind of talk comes from Democrats who are afraid that support for Trump will grow in the years ahead, he added.
“I think that in the next four years we’re going to grow support for him like we did in ’84,” when most Hawaii voters supported the re-election of Ronald Reagan, Sutton said. That year was the last time Hawaii voters backed a Republican presidential candidate.
The political action committee MoveOn.org is calling for Democrats in Congress to boycott the event, but Hawaii’s U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Schatz both plan to attend.
A spokeswoman for
U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D, Rural Oahu-Neighbor Islands) said Gabbard is traveling abroad and would not attend, but U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Urban Honolulu) said she will attend.
