SCARBOROUGH — When longtime friends James Duggan and Joshua Bois attended the inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20. they got a close-up view of the action, sitting only eight rows back in the front section.
“I was close enough to see Donald Trump’s golden hair,” said Bois, 16, a junior at Scarborough High School. “I was overcome with excitement during the ceremony.”
Bois and Duggan, 19, flew from Portland to Baltimore and took a train to Washington, D.C.
Bois said he received the tickets from his uncle, Chris Bois, who works in the U.S. Senate Press Gallery.
“After President Trump said, ‘We will make America great again!’ I could not help but smile and cheer alongside the roaring crowd. It was a very surreal moment that I will never forget,” Bois said.
Duggan, a 2016 graduate of Scarborough High School and a freshman at Husson University in Bangor, said while he wasn’t a Trump supporter, it was exciting to be “that close to the podium, watching the president being sworn in. It’s part of history.”
Bois said he hopes to pursue a career in government and politics after going to college. He said he was amazed to realize how many people were there and that there was a strong “sense of community among the people in the crowd.”
“It meant so much to me to be a part of that historical event. When I turned around to see the large crowd, I found myself picking my jaw off the floor. I just looked in awe at how special it was to have a front row seat to this event.”
Bois said they also attended the Women’s March on Washington the day after the inauguration, but he didn’t like how the march was a protest against the Trump presidency.
“I left before the end because I was there to support women’s rights, not to protest against our president,” Bois said.
Melanie Sochan can be reached at 781-3661 ext.106 or msochan@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter @melaniesochan.
Joshua Bois, 16, and James Duggan, 19, both of Scarborough, attended inauguration ceremonies for President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy Christopher Bois)
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