States, too, have strengthened their defenses by erecting fences and barriers, moving windows in and calling in the national guard.
So far, the major security efforts have dwarfed the protests that have taken place. But the tension remains high.
On Sunday, small rallies of protesters, some of whom were armed, stood outside the capitals of Michigan, Ohio, Texas and several other states, but many other state capitals preparing for the worst encountered only a handful of people. All the protests were peaceful.
The security efforts even extended to the investigation of members of the National Guard who would arrive in Washington for the inauguration in case of an ‘in danger’.
Demonstrations so far are mostly silent
Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, warned last week that the FBI was seeing “extensive” chatter around the inauguration.
“Together with our partners, we are evaluating the threats and what kind of resources can be used against them. At the moment, we are stopping calls for possible armed protests,” he said.
Since then, there have been a few armed protesters at the capitals of the state, but those that did occur were relatively small and with differing political views.
The fierce security and ongoing arrests of people who took part in the storms of the American Capitol may play a role in discouraging the protests.
Anti-government groups that promised to show up in the days before the inauguration seem to be partly offended by their conspiracies that the government is behind some of the nationwide protest marches that have so far failed.
Law enforcers say there is a broad oversight focused on people in the groups that participated in the Capitol attack. One of the prominent themes that emerges is that the conspiracies against the government that are driving groups like the Oathkeepers and other militants have become a driver to avoid the protests, for fear that they have been set up for arrest.
Some of the people who are likely to attend these kinds of events are also trying to lower their profile after participating in the uprising, law enforcement officials said.
Some have seen their faces spread in FBI posters over the past week. In some cases, members of the groups surrendered in hopes of gaining an advantage by not waiting for the FBI.
CNN’s Mike Callahan, Allie Malloy, Jon Passantino, Evan Perez and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.