I Went To TikTok’s Inauguration Party. The Trump Vibe Shift Is Real.

As I joined the growing number of tuxedoed Washingtonians abandoning their Ubers on 14th Street, choosing to brave the frigid temperatures rather than wait another minute behind a blockade, I tried to ignore the biting wind and focus on my mantra: I have to make it to the TikTok party.

Shuffling down the road, I wondered what to expect. Would the Inauguration Eve shindig be just another DC party full of lobbyists and waiters circulating with chicken skewers? Or would I be plunged headfirst into an unfamiliar scene and spend the night awkwardly mingling with too-cool influencers?

It was a little bit of both. I waited in line with a prominent conservative tweeter and a newly-minted White House staffer. The second we got inside, I saw a platoon of trendy partygoers jostling to get their fur-collared overcoats from coat check as a clip of Matt Walsh played on the screen behind them.

Turning to my left, I saw Chelly, a TikTok influencer who specializes in Vivek Ramaswamy impersonations. That pretty much summed up the vibe at the Power 30 Awards and Inauguration Party.

Maybe this is how Democrats feel all the time. You show up to a party and see Beyonce doing lemon drops with Janet Yellen. But most of us aren’t used to this seamless intermingling of politics and celebrity. I can safely say that I’ve never been invited to a party where Liz Truss and Conor McGregor were feted in the VIP lounge while people got bottle service downstairs in honor of Walsh, his fellow Daily Wire hosts, and other conservative influencers like Riley Gaines.

You could argue – and many have – that this party was nothing more than TikTok’s ploy to woo those in Trump’s orbit so the president would save the Chinese-owned app. And that was obviously part of it, as the #SaveTikTok step-and-repeat set up in the lobby suggested.

But there was something else going on here. TikTok didn’t need to spend $50,000 on a party just to lobby the Trump administration — that’s what lobbyists are for. Nor did the party need to be so … cool. The bottle girls with sparklers and signs, like something out of a Miami nightclub; the DJ spinning a set that multiple people described as “like a college party – in a good way!” And of course, the headline event: Waka Flocka Flame, live in person, throwing McDonald’s cheeseburgers to the crowd.

This isn’t the kind of party you throw because you have to. This is the kind of party you throw because you want to.

By now, I’m probably the 100th writer to comment on the vibe shift that followed Donald Trump back to the White House. Whether it’s Nelly performing at the Inauguration or Kim Kardashian praising Melania Trump’s swearing-in outfit, the most unlikely people are rushing to celebrate Trumpworld.

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Critics – the haters, to put it in TikTok parlance – say these celebrities are just acting out of fear. But we know that’s not true, because they didn’t do it last time. For the past eight years, hating Trump has been as en vogue in Hollywood as Ozempic and cropped sweatshirts. But things are different now. Famous people don’t just want to celebrate conservatives – they want people to know they’re doing it.

Oscar de la Renta didn’t just dress Usha Vance — the label bragged about it. Maybe Kim Kardashian felt like she had to praise Melania to seem polite. But her sister Khloe clearly had something else in mind when she shared a Daily Wire reporter’s tweet criticizing Los Angeles’ Democratic mayor. Clearly, something has shifted in the American consciousness.

Which brings us back to the TikTok party.

Watching Taylor Lorenz and her bejeweled mask mingle with content creators and conservative journalists in the VIP lounge, I couldn’t help but think about Joe and Stewart Alsop, brothers whose columns were required reading in midcentury Washington. In 1952, Joe predicted that “Eisenhower’s Washington will, I think, be unbearably boring,” while Stewart dismissed Republicans as “dull fellows who work late and go to bed early.” Years later, Joe cheered the Kennedy administration for reviving DC’s social scene and influencing it with “glamour, which is not a quality usually associated with Washington.”

Since then, Republicans have always been the boring party. When Democrats are in the White House, the media rush to profile where the president dines, what neighborhoods are being made trendy by young staffers, and more. Republican administrations, meanwhile, bring weepy pieces about the death of the district’s cocktail bars or innovative restaurants.

That doesn’t seem to be happening this time. For the first time since the Alsops cheered the fun and freedom that would come with Camelot, the tastemakers and socialites want to hang out with Republicans.

If that’s not a vibe shift, I don’t know what is.