One of the more phenomenal comebacks in American political history will be complete on Monday when Donald Trump is sworn in for his second term office in the Rotunda room of the Capitol in Washington, DC. The New York businessman has, in just over a decade, all but reinvented the Republican Party and inherits a deeply divided nation as 47th president as he begins his four-year task to deliver on his slogan and “make America great again”.
Friday’s snap decision to move the inauguration ceremony indoors because of severe cold (forecasts say the predicted -5 degrees will feel like -12 because of wind chills) threw security plans into disarray. Some 30 miles of anti-scale fencing have been erected around the Capitol and various parts of the city centre. More than 200,000 people were due to visit Washington for the inauguration celebrations. The weekend parties and balls are continuing as planned.
But the Rotunda, which will host the first swearing-in since Ronald Reagan’s second term in 1985, can accommodate only a very select audience, which will include the three richest people in the world. The Capital One Arena, where Trump will hold a rally before his inauguration, will contain around 20,000 more supporters. But it remains to be seen where the majority of the crowd will gather for the ceremonies. In 2017, hundreds were arrested during protests at president Trump’s first inauguration ceremony and similar protests are anticipated on Monday. Among those in Washington are MMA fighter Conor McGregor, who wrote in a post on X that he was there to attend the inauguration,
The new president and first lady Melania Trump flew into Washington on Saturday evening on Air Force One. That flight alone was symbolic of the new era. Four years have passed since the couple last travelled on the presidential aircraft, when Trump made an ignominious exit from the White House in the aftermath of the January 6th attacks on the Capitol and his decision not to attend the inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden (who was not extended the traditional courtesy of arriving on Air Force One by the outgoing president). Few then from either the Republicans’ or Democrats’ chambers of power would have bet on gathering in the Rotunda on Monday to see him sworn in again.
The incoming first couple attended a celebration at the golf club Trump owns in Sterling, Virginia, about 30 miles outside the capital, and enjoyed a fireworks display at 10 in the evening. As so often with Donald Trump, his presence seems to coincide with a maelstrom of activity. His arrival in the city, on Sunday, coincided with the first release of Israeli hostages from captivity by Hamas in almost a year. Customers among the 120 million US users of TikTok, the popular Chinese social media app, found it began to “go dark” as the Supreme Court-approved ban begins to take effect. Trump has vowed to reinstate the app in his first day in office and its service was restored in the US later on Sunday.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” he promised via a social media post.
Plans for a day-one sweep of Chicago by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) were placed under review following a media leak.
“ICE will start arresting public safety threats and national security threats on day one,” Tom Homan, who will supervise border security, said. “We’ll be arresting people across the country, uninhibited by any prior administration guidelines. Why Chicago was mentioned specifically I don’t know.”
The optics of visible, high-profile arrests would be the natural conclusion to the opening week of Trump’s second term in office given his campaign promises to begin deportations on day one.
Joe Biden spent Sunday, his final full day in office, in Charleston, South Carolina, the state where he revived an ailing primary campaign in 2020 after securing the support of veteran congressman James Clyburn. He gave a brief televised update on the release of the Israeli hostages on Sunday morning. But by then, all eyes were on Washington.
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