A hallmark of the nearly 250-year American democracy is the quadrennial peaceful transfer of presidential power, and it is set to unfold again on Monday, with Donald Trump, the 45th president until he lost his 2020 reelection bid, set to be inaugurated as the country’s 47th leader after winning last November’s election.
Millions of Americans are expected to watch on television as the 78-year-old Trump takes the oath of office for a new four-year term in the White House while President Joe Biden, 82, leaves the presidency after a single term.
But only about 600 people will see Trump sworn in live, with the ceremony moved into the U.S. Capitol Rotunda at Trump’s behest. An arrival Sunday night of an Arctic blast of frigid air into Washington could push the temperature to -6 Celsius at noon on Monday, when the traditional outdoor swearing-in ceremony would normally be held on the steps of the Capitol overlooking the National Mall.
It is expected to be the coldest Inauguration Day in Washington in 40 years, when Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration was also moved inside in 1985.
About 250,000 tickets to Trump’s planned outdoor ceremony on the Capitol steps had been handed out to his supporters and dignitaries but inaugural officials said they now can simply keep the ducats as commemorative souvenirs.
The traditional inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House has also been canceled because of the weather, with bands, marching units, drill teams and the like now parading past Trump, his wife, Melania Trump and other officials in his new administration at the nearby 20,000-seat Capital One Arena, with thousands of other celebrants literally left out in the cold. Lavish black-tie balls are still planned for Monday evening.
Trump’s ascendancy to power again comes with some historical footnotes: He will become the first felon to serve as U.S. president, after his conviction last year on 34 criminal charges linked to falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn film star Stormy Daniels, although a judge declined to penalize him in any way.
Charges that Trump, a Republican, tried to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden were dropped when he defeated his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election because of a long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Trump will also become the second U.S. president to serve a second nonconsecutive term, after Grover Cleveland in the 1890s.
Beyond the pomp and circumstances of U.S. inaugurals, both Trump’s supportive Republican colleagues and opposition Democrats will be closely watching to see what policy changes he quickly announces with executive orders to undo Biden edicts or simply to push forward with planks from his winning campaign against Harris.
Trump’s Day 1 promises are wide-ranging, but whether he signs orders affecting all of them or spreads out some of them to the coming days is not certain.
Perhaps his most persistent claim from the campaign trail is that he plans to deport more than 11 million undocumented migrants living in the United States, starting with migrants who have been convicted of crimes and then others who have been ordered to return to their home countries after losing asylum bids to stay in the U.S.
But an apparent Trump plan to begin the immigration crackdown on Tuesday in Chicago leaked to U.S. media outlets, leaving Trump’s handpicked “border czar,” Tom Homan, to say that that the timing of the deportation plan is now being reconsidered.
“We’re looking at this leak and will make a decision based on this leak,” Homan told The Washington Post. “It’s unfortunate because anyone leaking law enforcement operations puts officers at greater risk.”
Nonetheless, Homan said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency “will start arresting public safety threats and national security threats on day one. We’ll be arresting people across the country, uninhibited by any prior (Biden) administration guidelines. Why Chicago was mentioned specifically, I don’t know.”
“This is nationwide thing,” he said. “We’re not sweeping neighborhoods. We have a targeted enforcement plan.”
Trump has also vowed to close the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico and force would-be asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims to stay in the U.S. are adjudicated.
All of his get-tough-on-migrant plans are sure to draw legal challenges from advocates supporting those seeking a new life in the U.S., possibly leaving Trump’s actions in limbo for extended periods, weeks, maybe months.
Related to immigration, Trump says he wants to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the United States, although it is part of the U.S. Constitution, so it is not clear how he plans to try to do that unilaterally.
Trump has also vowed to quickly impose heightened tariffs on key trading partners, including Canada, China and Mexico.
The incoming president says he plans to pardon many of the 1,500 supporters of his who stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to block Congress from certifying that Biden won the 2020 election. Trump has called those arrested and convicted “patriots” and “hostages” wrongly prosecuted.
It is not clear whether Trump will pardon only those convicted of relatively minor offenses or include those convicted of attacking the 140 law enforcement officials who were injured in the mayhem four years ago.
Trump vowed for months to end Russia’s war on Ukraine before he takes office, but in recent days his aides have said the goal now is to try to reach a truce in the fighting in the first 100 days of his administration, which would be around the end of April.
Trump also wants more oil drilling in the U.S. even though in 2023, U.S. energy production exceeded consumption by a record amount, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Two transgender issues have also drawn Trump’s attention.
Trump has repeatedly referred to transgender women as men, telling his supporters that he will ensure transgender women cannot compete in women’s sports.
“I will keep men out of women’s sports, 100%, immediately, first day,” Trump told one political rally during the campaign. He also frequently has assailed gender-affirming care, which can include hormone therapy. “On day one, I will revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called ‘gender affirming care.’”