Jesus tries to take wheel during Carrie Underwood’s inauguration performance

We’re not the first ones to point out that this time feels… different, and not in a very good way. In 2017, Donald Trump’s inauguration was the subject of fights about its crowd size and the single largest protest in U.S. history at the time with the next day’s Women’s March. Though there are still marches this year, they’re smaller. Oscar De La Renta is dressing the Vances. And Trump had few issues securing celebrity singers for his ceremony, with Carrie Underwood signing on to sing “America The Beautiful” this afternoon. 

And while there’s no need to assign a specific belief system to the proceedings, it’s a fair enough assessment that something out there did its best to at least delay the performance. The backing track for the song began playing, but before it was Underwood’s turn to sing, it cut out, leading to an awkward moment of standing around. (Why not pay for real musicians to perform at your event of international importance?) Eventually, Underwood opts to sing it a capella, inviting the rest of the crowd, “You know the words, help me out here” before launching into the rendition. Some people do—Hillary Clinton looks like she’s singing fairly enthusiastically, Kamala Harris could be said to be mouthing along, we guess—while Trump himself and his son Barron stand there silently. What a start to what will surely be a very normal four years.