President-elect Donald Trump headed to Washington Saturday to kick off days of pageantry heralding his second inauguration as president, 4 years after he departed the town below the shadow of an assault by his supporters on the Capitol.
Trump, Melania and their son Barron boarded the aircraft at 5:13 p.m. Eastern Time and departed Palm Beach, Florida, from Mar-a-Lago, where his team has spent his transition since he gained the election. The three of them rotated on the high of the steps, and Trump waved earlier than heading contained in the aircraft.
The ritualistic altering of energy will get underway as Washington’s solemn pomp is paired with Trump’s model of get together: a fireworks showcase at one in every of his luxurious golf properties, company together with tech trade titans, mates from the enterprise world and conservative media stars, and hundreds of his supporters streaming in from across the nation.
With a blast of Arctic air anticipated to depart the nation’s capital facing frigid temperatures on Inauguration Day organizers had been additionally scrambling to maneuver inside most of Monday’s out of doors occasions, together with the swearing-in ceremony.
“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I do not wish to see individuals damage, or injured, in any approach…Therefore, I’ve ordered the Inauguration Address, along with prayers and different speeches, to be delivered within the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was utilized by Ronald Reagan in 1985, additionally due to very chilly climate.”
Country music stars Carrie Underwood, Billy Ray Cyrus and Jason Aldean, disco band the Village People, rapper Nelly and musician Kid Rock are all scheduled to carry out at inauguration-related ceremonies and occasions. Actor Jon Voight and wrestler Hulk Hogan are additionally anticipated to make appearances, as are a crew of Trump-embracing enterprise executives: Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
The solely public occasion on Trump’s schedule is a night reception and fireworks present at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, outdoors the town.
While Trump holds court docket at his membership, Vice President-elect JD Vance will attend a reception for Cabinet members and host a dinner in Washington.
On Sunday, the eve of his inauguration, Trump is scheduled to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery earlier than heading to a rally at Capital One Arena in Washington. The rally shall be adopted by a personal dinner.
On Inauguration Day, Trump will begin with the standard prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church earlier than heading to the White House for a customary tea with the outgoing president and first girl.
Trump then heads to the Capitol, the place his ceremony has been moved indoors as temperatures are set to plummet and make it the coldest Inauguration Day in 40 years. It’s not fairly clear how the ceremony shall be tailored to the Capitol Rotunda, which holds solely 600 individuals. More than 250,000 company had been ticketed to view the inauguration from across the Capitol grounds.
The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is chargeable for planning the occasion, stated in a press release that “the overwhelming majority of ticketed company will be unable to attend the ceremonies in individual.”
Eight years in the past, Trump’s critics had been wrestling with whether or not to attend his inauguration, considering whether or not to buck long-standing follow and ship a sign to the divisive new president. This 12 months, a lot outspoken resistance to Trump has pale away, although there shall be two notable absences: former first lady Michelle Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Neither gave a proof as to why she was skipping the ceremony.
After Trump takes the oath of workplace and delivers his inaugural tackle, there shall be a ceremonial farewell to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. As the brand new Republican authorities takes energy, Trump will head to a signing ceremony on the Capitol to approve a few of his first official acts, adopted by a congressional luncheon and evaluation of U.S. troops.
The deliberate conventional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue has morphed into an indoor occasion due to the chilly, with Trump once more planning to talk to his gathered supporters earlier than he heads to the White House for a signing ceremony within the Oval Office. A trio of glitzy balls will observe within the night, punctuated by musical performances.
Trump’s arrival in Washington will as soon as once more be accompanied by protests and vigils on points equivalent to abortion, immigration rights and, this time, the Israel-Hamas warfare, however the really feel and the power of these demonstrations had been totally different from the outset of his first time period.
The Women’s March, spurred by women outraged over Trump’s win in 2017, drew greater than 500,000 individuals to Washington and thousands and thousands extra in cities across the nation, marking one of many largest single-day demonstrations in U.S. historical past.
The march returned Saturday, rebranded because the People’s March, with organizers saying their focus shall be much less on Trump and extra on broader objectives round ladies’s and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigration, local weather and democracy. It drew far fewer than eight years in the past.
Kathryn Watson and
contributed to this report.
