Trump’s pre-inauguration return to Washington includes fireworks, Elvis impersonator By Reuters
Author: Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Saturday night for an inauguration celebration marking his return to power marred by record low temperatures.
Trump will land in the area with his wife Melania in the early evening from his home base in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Republican has been working on his transition to power after his Nov. 5 election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump is expected to head immediately to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington, where about 500 guests will watch fireworks and musical performances that include Elvis impersonator Leo Days and Christopher Macchio, the tenor Mr. Trump has already appeared at political events.
The 78-year-old Trump is scheduled to hold a rally with supporters inside Capital one (NYSE:) Arena in downtown Washington on Sunday, ahead of his inauguration, as well as a post-inauguration event on Monday afternoon. Trump will be sworn in at 12 noon ET.
Cold weather forecast for Monday prompted Trump to move the inauguration ceremonies from the iconic west front of the US Capitol building to an indoor venue in the Capitol Rotunda, and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to Capital One Arena.
Most of the more than 220,000 ticketed guests who were scheduled to watch from the grounds of the U.S. Capitol will not be able to watch the swearing-in inside the building. Only a fraction will be able to fit into the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena, where the US inauguration will be broadcast and where entertainers and parade participants are expected to perform.
Trump will deliver his inaugural address, a speech usually intended to set the tone for the president’s new four-year term, from the rotunda inside the US Capitol.
It will be the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in January 1985 that a major event has moved indoors.
After returning 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 curb migration, boost US energy production and other priorities.
Trump, whose first term was 2017-2021, refused to attend the inauguration of the man who defeated him in 2020, Democrat Joe Biden. He left Washington for Florida before the ceremony, promising “we’ll be back in some form.”
Two weeks earlier, his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, seeking to delay lawmakers from confirming Biden’s victory.
