Washington: Outgoing President Joe Biden and his incoming successor President-elect Donald Trump rode together to the US Capitol for the latter’s oath-taking ceremony after a traditional tea ceremony at the White House along with their wives, Vice-President Kamala Harris and her incoming successor J D Vance and their spouses.
Jill Biden and Melania Trump rode together to the Capitol in a separate car as did Vice-President Kamala Harris and her successor J D Vance.
They had gathered at the White House for a traditional tea ceremony, at which Biden welcomed the incoming president with two words: “Welcome home”, according to media reports.
Guests for the swearing-in had begun arriving early at the Capitol Rotunda where the ceremony will take place indoors instead of the traditional venue outside because of frigid conditions.
This is only the second instance of the swearing-in taking place indoors — the last time being in 1985 when President Ronald Reagan took the oath for his second term.
Trump’s return to the White House is also only the second time for an American president to service two non-consecutive terms. The first was Grover Cleveland at the end of the 19th century.
The swearing-in will be attended by Trump’s nominees to the cabinet such as Marco Rubio, for Secretary of State, who is expected to be the first to be confirmed, as early as Monday; Robert Kennedy Jr., Doug Burgum, Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth and others.
Among the first high-ranking officials to arrive at the Capitol Rotunda on Monday was General C Q Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is sitting on the platform where Trump will take his oath. Current and former House and Senate leaders have also arrived, including former Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife former Trump Cabinet member Elaine Chao. Former House speakers Kevin McCarthy, John Boehner and Newt Gingrich also took their seats.
According to pool reports, supporters were filing into Emancipation Hall at the Capitol, the overflow viewing room in the Capitol Visitor Centre, where the President-elect is expected to speak after the inauguration ceremony. Notable attendees include AI billionaires Sam Altman and Alexandr Wang, YouTube influencers and brothers Logan and Jake Paul, New York Mayor Eric Adams, mixed martial artist and boxer Conor McGregor, comedian and podcaster Theo Von and former race car driver Danica Patrick. House and Senate spouses have also been seated in the overflow space.
President-elect Trump started Monday’s inauguration proceedings by attending a private service at St John’s Church with the incoming first lady Melania Trump, Vice-President-elect JD Vance and wife Usha Vance and some members of the cabinet.
No TV cameras were allowed inside but the Trump inauguration team released pictures from inside that showed other attendees included Trump’s sons Barron Trump, Don Trump Jr, Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Also among Trump’s guests were Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla and Space X’s Elon Musk, Google’s Sundar Pichai. They would go on to also attend the swearing-in ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.
Former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, former President George W Bush and wife Laura Bush, former President Barack Obama minus his wife Michelle Obama will attend the oath-taking ceremony as is the tradition, which was broken by President Trump who skipped Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
As the ceremonies and partying continued into the evening and night, Trump’s aides were working on a spate of executive orders implementing some of the President-elect’s election promises, including immigration. The President-elect told guests at a dinner Sunday night that there are close to 100 such orders. About 10 of them will be about immigration and among others one will rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
