Baala Shakya, Staff Photographer

A lively crowd of largely suburban Republicans descended on downtown New Haven on Monday to usher in the second Trump era — and pine after an elusive rightward shift in Connecticut.

About 70 of the state’s Trump faithful gathered at the nightclub 144 Temple for an inauguration watch party sponsored by the Connecticut Republican Party. They had five television screens, assorted MAGA hats, a DJ pumping celebratory tunes, a silent auction featuring whiskey and vodka bottles, boos for prominent Democrats as they appeared onscreen, a Trump impersonator brought in from Long Island and, most important, the man himself back in power as of noon.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Judy Baldyga, 65, a retired school employee from Milford, who sat with her husband near a life-size cardboard cutout of a shirtless Rocky Balboa with Trump’s face mostly covering Sylvester Stallone’s. She said she wants Trump to prioritize establishing a “closed border” and a sense of national unity, adding that “people’s eyes are opened” after he won not just the Electoral College but also the popular vote.

“There’s so much divisiveness in this administration, in Joe Biden’s administration,” she said in the administration’s waning minutes, citing an excessive emphasis on identity politics and combating racism.

After Trump finished the oath of office in the Capitol rotunda, the Village People song “YMCA,” a standard at his rallies, blared in 144 Temple, while the traveling impersonator Thomas Mundy launched into the newly sworn-in president’s signature dance. The atmosphere grew raucous before quieting for the half-hour inaugural address.

The crowd watched rapt, erupting in cheers at the boldest statements about what Trump’s second term portends: “From this moment on, America’s decline is over.” “For American citizens, Jan. 20, 2025, is liberation day.” “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”

State Republican leaders were in Washington for Inauguration Day, according to one of the party’s hosts, George Agnelli, a jeweler and real estate agent in East Hartford, who considers himself a Democrat even after voting for Trump three times.

Although most attendees came from outside New Haven, Agnelli said the location offered a change from Republican events held in and around Hartford. Plus, he knows the club’s owner. Agnelli estimated that — between the auction, the lunch for sale and the $30 or $40 tickets — the event would bring in between $5 and $10 thousand for the Connecticut Republican coffers.

“It means everything to me that you’re all here,” Gary Byron, a conservative radio host and another host of the event, said before the inaugural speech went on, “We’ve been talking about this for the last four years. Now it’s time, my friends: We have to turn Connecticut red. That begins right now.”

New Haven, for one, gave Trump ​​6,626 votes in November’s general election, more than in his past two presidential runs — but just 17 percent of the city’s voters. Mayor Justin Elicker and other local leaders have warned about Trump’s threats to carry out broad deportations of undocumented immigrants. At a press conference in Fair Haven on Friday, they reaffirmed the city’s commitment to protecting those residents as far as the law permits.

Duncan McBride, a 27-year-old toolmaker from Milford who attended the watch party, said undocumented immigrants should know the risks of entering the country illegally and try to gain legal status if they can. “I’m sure there’s some legal recourse they can take to become documented here, and if they can’t, then it’s unfortunate but they should do their best,” he said.

No matter the fears swirling in the surrounding city, the mood on Temple Street was jubilant.

“I couldn’t have imagined a better place to watch,” McBride said. He said he relished the “countercultural spirit of people here,” proudly cheering Trump in the unfriendly territory of a Democratic stronghold.

His friend David Zeppieri, a 34-year-old IT technician from Hamden, said Trump, in his inaugural, “knocked it straight out of the park — straight to Mars.”

Donald Trump is the 45th and 47th president of the United States.