WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump headed to Washington on Saturday for an inauguration celebration, as frigid temperatures cast a shadow over the event marking his return to power.
Trump flew aboard an Air Force plane sent by outgoing President Joe Biden to his home in Palm Beach, Fla., where the Republican had been working on his transition to power after winning the November 5 election against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. His wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and husband Jared accompanied him on the plane.
After arriving at Dulles Airport in suburban Virginia, Trump headed to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington.
Elvis Presley impersonator Leo Days serenaded the new president and first lady before a reception for about 500 guests and fireworks. An aide posted a video on social media showing the singer humming as the Trumps looked on.
Trump, 78, is scheduled to hold a rally with supporters inside the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington on Sunday, the day before his inauguration, as well as a post-inauguration event Monday afternoon.
Icy weather forecast for Monday prompted Trump to move the inaugural ceremonies from the iconic west front of the U.S. Capitol building to inside the Capitol rotunda, as well as the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capital One Arena.
Trump will be sworn in at noon local time (1700 GMT) and then deliver his inaugural address, a speech that typically sets the tone for the president’s new four-year term, from the rotunda of the US Capitol.
It will be the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in January 1985 that the big event will take place indoors.
Crowds without seats in Washington DC
Most of the more than 220,000 ticketed guests who were scheduled to attend the ceremony from the U.S. Capitol will not be able to watch the swearing-in inside the building. Only a fraction will be able to enter the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena, where the inauguration will be broadcast and parade entertainers and participants are expected to perform.
On Saturday, Trump fans who had planned to attend the inauguration were already walking around downtown Washington.
Arthur Caisse, a 78-year-old retired professor, and his brother Richard Caisse, a 64-year-old small business owner, had come from Connecticut to attend Trump’s inauguration for the second time, after arriving in 2017.
“It’s so disappointing because we all traveled so long and far to get here and then to go through the congressional process to get tickets to the inauguration. Finally, we got tickets, now, boom. They say we might not even be able to go to the (National) Mall,” Arthur Caisse said.
“I am not disappointed because on Monday, we get our country back,” added Richard Caisse.
Debbie Koch, a 60-year-old information technology professional who came from Wisconsin with her sister, said they still planned to attend the rally at the Capital One arena Sunday night if they could get in.
“We’re not sure,” she said. “We’re just excited to be here.”
Asked Saturday how it would handle crowds of ticket holders for Trump’s inauguration who would not fit into the Capitol Rotunda or Capital One Stadium, the Secret Service referred the question to the event’s organizers.
Trump’s inaugural committee did not respond to requests for additional information about Saturday’s Capital One arena event.
Once he returns to the White House on Monday afternoon, Trump is expected to begin signing some of the dozens of executive orders and directives he has planned to crack down on immigration, boost U.S. energy production and other priorities.
Trump, whose first term lasted from 2017 to 2021, refused to attend the inauguration of Biden, who defeated him in 2020. He left Washington for Florida before the ceremony, vowing that “we will return under one form or another.”
Two weeks earlier, his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, seeking to delay lawmakers’ certification of Biden’s victory.
Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday.
