The United States was bracing for a new era of disruption and division on Monday with Donald Trump scheduled to be sworn in as its 47th president, promising a blitz of executive orders and radical shake-up of the global order.
Trump’s inauguration ceremony has been moved inside to the rotunda at the US Capitol building because of bitterly cold weather. The high sandstone hall at the Capitol’s centre is the same spot where some of his supporters rioted on 6 January 2021 in an attempt to overturn his election defeat.
Few imagined then that Trump, twice impeached and now a convicted criminal, would set foot inside the White House again. But over the weekend the 78-year-old revelled in his improbable political comeback with supporters of his Maga (Make America great again) movement.
On Saturday Trump held a party at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, that featured an Elvis Presley impersonator and a fireworks display that illuminated the night sky. In keeping with tradition, he spent Saturday night at Blair House, the president’s official guest residence on Pennsylvania Avenue, across from the White House.
He held a private breakfast with Republican senators there on Sunday. His schedule for the day included a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery and addressing a campaign-style “Maga Victory” rally at a downtown sports arena.
“We won,” declared an exultant Trump after walking on stage at Washington’s Capital One Arena, accompanied by his signature campaign anthem God Bless the USA.
Vowing to “take our country back”, the soon-to-be 47th president said: “Tomorrow at noon the curtain closes on four long years of American decline and we begin a brand new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride.”
“We’re going to stop the invasion of our borders,” Trump promised. “We’re going to unlock the liquid gold that’s right under our feet … We’re going to bring back law and order to our cities … We’re going to get radical woke ideology the hell out of our military.”
Trump promised that on Monday he would “act with historic speed and strength and every crisis facing our country”. He also sought to claim credit for restoring TikTok to American users and for Sunday’s release of hostages from Gaza.
Earlier at the rally, taking place in a sports area with basketball and ice hockey championship pennants hanging from the roof, Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, promised that Trump would on Monday issue “an executive order ending the border invasion, sending illegals home and taking America back”.
Trump added: “The border security measures I will outline in my inaugural address tomorrow will be the most aggressive, sweeping effort to restore our borders that the world has ever seen.”
Trump also signaled that he plans to immediately undo the prosecutions of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021 in an effort to keep him in office. “Tomorrow everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J6 hostages,” he said.
His inauguration at noon on Monday will be the first attended by foreign leaders Chinese vice-president Han Zheng, Argentina’s president Javier Milei and Italy’s premier Giorgia Meloni. Trump will then deliver an inaugural address that he claims will be unifying in tone.
“January 20th cannot come fast enough!,” he posted on his social media site. “Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen.”
Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in last year’s fraught battle for the White House, will also be in attendance as JD Vance takes her place as vice-president. Harris, who became the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden was forced to withdraw from the race in July, had framed Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy who would exploit his regained power to settle political scores while ignoring the needs of average Americans.
After an indoor parade for 20,000 supporters, Trump is expected to hit the ground running by issuing a slew of executive orders. He has promised that on day one he would pardon January 6 insurrectionists, seal the southern border and launch the biggest ever deportation programme of undocumented people.
Trump’s team plans to kick off a major raid in Chicago starting on Tuesday with up to 200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers descending on the city, targeting undocumented people with criminal records as minor as traffic violations, the Wall Street Journal reported.
One notable absence among the many invited dignitaries will be Michelle Obama, as the former first lady has said she will not attend the event after skipping former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral earlier this month as well. But another well-known former first lady, Hillary Clinton, will witness Trump’s second swearing-in, eight years after she attended his first inauguration following her defeat to him in the 2016 presidential contest.
In that first inaugural address, Trump adopted an ominous tone as he described a country teetering on the edge of calamity, vowing to end “American carnage”. Trump’s aides have indicated that his speech will be much more hopeful this time around, in a surprising change for a man who derided the US as “a nation in decline” under Biden and Harris’ leadership as he campaigned last year.
As Trump takes the reins of power, Biden will depart the White House for the final time as president on Monday morning. He leaves office with an unsually low approval rating amid ongoing attacks from fellow Democrats, many of whom blame Harris’s loss on Biden’s refusal to exit the presidential race earlier.
In his farewell address on Wednesday, Biden largely sidestepped questions about his legacy and instead delivered a frank warning about the nation’s “concentration of power and wealth” in the hands of a privileged few while truth and facts have become ever harder for the public to access.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said.
As he marked the end of a political career that first began with his election to the Senate in 1972, Biden concluded: “After 50 years of public service, I give you my word, I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands – a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn to stand guard.”
That responsibility begins Monday, as the US embarks on four more years of Trump’s leadership, more unsure than ever of what they may bring.
