How much did Biden's 2021 inauguration cost compared to Trump's 2017 event?
Executive summary
Joe Biden’s 2021 inaugural fundraising was roughly two‑thirds the size of Donald Trump’s 2017 haul: Biden’s inaugural committee reported raising about $61.8–$63.8 million, while Trump’s 2017 committee took in roughly $100–107 million from private donors (Reuters; Business Insider; WTSP) [1] [2] [3]. Those headline figures, however, mask a wider reality: private fundraising is only part of the picture—public security and city costs (which ballooned after Jan. 6, 2021) push total taxpayer exposure for the 2021 transition far above the private sums, and a definitive apples‑to‑apples “cost” comparison remains elusive because comprehensive accounting is incomplete [4] [1].
1. Private fundraising: Biden’s committee raised far less than Trump’s
Federal filings and contemporary reporting show Biden’s inaugural committee raised roughly $61.8 million according to Reuters and about $63.8 million according to Business Insider, figures that sit well below the unprecedented $100–107 million that Donald Trump’s 2017 committee raised from private donors [1] [2] [3]. Those totals are the standard metric for “how much an inauguration costs” in popular coverage because private donations traditionally bankroll concerts, balls and other celebratory events; by that measure Biden’s private war chest was materially smaller than Trump’s first inaugural haul [1] [2].
2. Public costs and security: 2021’s taxpayer bill was unusually large
Independent assessments and budget line items show that taxpayer exposure related to Biden’s inauguration and the heavy security posture around Jan. 20, 2021 was substantial: preliminary research from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation estimated taxpayers would be on the hook for at least $665 million for the inauguration events and the ongoing military lock‑down of the District—an estimate that includes federal and local security, continuity operations and extraordinary National Guard deployments [4]. Congressional and local appropriations for inauguration‑related public safety also rose: an FY 2021 omnibus included roughly $38.4 million for Washington, D.C.’s public safety at related events, with $21.9 million earmarked specifically for inauguration costs [4].
3. Why the large public tab in 2021 doesn’t simply overturn the private‑funding comparison
The high public security spending in 2021 reflects an extraordinary security environment after Jan. 6, 2021, and pandemic‑era event scaling that altered the nature of celebrations; Biden’s formal public events were deliberately smaller and many traditional balls were nixed, which reduced private event spending even as security costs rose [4] [5]. By contrast, past inaugurations—Trump’s included—featured larger in‑person crowds and more traditional slate of parades and balls, which drove higher private fundraising; some outlets estimated Trump’s entire 2017 inauguration ecosystem could have cost as much as $200 million when counting public and private spending, though that figure varies by source and methodology [6] [7].
4. Transparency, legal questions and limits to comparison
The readily comparable, audited numbers are the FEC filings for inaugural committees (the private fundraising totals), but those filings don’t capture every public outlay or the granular security tab, and post‑event accounting remains incomplete in many places; analysts therefore caution that a full apples‑to‑apples cost accounting across cycles is not yet possible [1] [4]. Additional context matters: reporting flagged legal scrutiny and disputes over expenditures tied to Trump’s 2017 inauguration, which complicates straightforward comparisons of “total cost” without parsing legal outcomes and reimbursements [2].
5. Bottom line: headline comparison and the hidden half
Headlines are simple and consistent: Biden’s inaugural committee raised about $62–64 million versus roughly $100–107 million raised for Trump’s 2017 inaugural, so on the private fundraising metric Biden spent materially less [1] [2] [3]. But when public security and emergency deployments are folded into the analysis—costs driven by the Capitol riot, a heavy National Guard presence and pandemic considerations—the taxpayer bill tied to the 2021 transition rose into the hundreds of millions, making a full cost comparison more complex and contingent on which line items one counts and which independent estimates one accepts [4] [6]. Available sources do not yet provide a single, definitive consolidated tally that reconciles private fundraising, municipal appropriations and all federal security expenditures; this limitation should temper confident claims that one inauguration was universally “more expensive” than the other across every accounting method [4] [1].