President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony will be a scaled-down event due to frigid weather. About 600 people will attend the event inside the Capitol, instead of the typical outdoor event where 250,000 people had reserved tickets.
Donald Trump returns to the US presidency on Monday with an inauguration ceremony in Washington that will make him the first president to serve non-consecutive terms since the 1890s.
Millions of Americans are expected to watch on television as Trump, 78, is sworn in for a new four-year term in the White House, while President Joe Biden, 82, leaves the presidency after a single term.
The inauguration ceremony will be a scaled-down event due to the frigid weather, with about 600 people witnessing the change of power inside the Capitol instead of the typical outdoor event where 250,000 people had reserved tickets.
The traditional inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House has also been canceled due to weather, with bands, marching units, drill teams and the like now parading in front of Trump, his wife, Melania Trump and other officials of his new administration at the nearby 20,000-seat Capital One Arena. Lavish gala balls are still planned for Monday night.
Trump promised Sunday night “act with historic speed and strength and solve every crisis facing our country,” while speaking to supporters in Washington.
“Tomorrow at noon, the curtain closes on four long years of American decline and we begin a new day of American strength and prosperity,” Trump said.
He has pledged to sign a series of executive orders upon taking office, including ones undoing the Biden administration's policies. Among his promises during the electoral campaign, one of the most notable was to carry out mass deportations of people who are in the country illegally.
Trump has also promised to quickly impose higher tariffs on key trading partners, including China, Canada, and Mexico.
The incoming president says he plans to pardon many of the 1,500 of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to try to stop Congress from certifying that Biden had won the 2020 election. Trump has called for those arrested and convicted “patriots” and “hostages” unjustly prosecuted.
Charges that Trump, a Republican, attempted to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden were dropped when he defeated his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election, under a long-standing Justice Department policy. against the prosecution of sitting presidents.
Trump, who has reiterated that the charges against him were a political maneuver, will become the first president found guilty of serving as president of the United States, after his conviction last year on 34 criminal charges related to the falsification of business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, although a judge refused to penalize him in any way.
Among Trump's promises before taking office, he has repeated for months that he will end Russia's war against Ukraine, but in recent days his aides have said that the goal now is to try to reach a truce in the fighting in the first 100 days of his administration, which would be around the end of April.
He also wants more oil drilling in the United States even though in 2023, U.S. energy production exceeded consumption by a record amount, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Two transgender issues have also caught Trump's attention. The president-elect has repeatedly referred to transgender women as men, and has told his supporters that he will ensure that transgender women cannot compete in women's sports.
“I will keep men out of women's sports, 100%, immediately, day one,” Trump said at a political rally during the campaign. He has also frequently attacked gender-affirming medical care, which can include hormone therapy. “On day one, I will repeal Joe Biden's cruel policies on so-called 'gender-affirming healthcare.'”
(Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse)