WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump flew to Washington on Saturday for an inauguration celebration, as frigid temperatures cast a shadow over the event marking his return to power.
Trump flew on an Air Force plane sent by outgoing President Joe Biden to his home in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Republican had worked on his transition to power after winning the November 5 election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. His wife Melania, his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared accompany him on the plane.
After arriving at Dulles Airport in suburban Virginia, Trump traveled to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, outside Washington.
Elvis Presley impersonator Leo Days serenaded the incoming president and first lady before a reception for about 500 guests and a fireworks display. An attendee posted a video on social media showing the singer crooning as the Trumps looked on.
Trump, 78, will hold a rally with his supporters inside the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington on Sunday, the eve of his inauguration, as well as a post-inauguration event on Monday afternoon.
A frigid weather forecast for Monday prompted Trump to move the inaugural ceremonies from the iconic west front of the U.S. Capitol building inside the Capitol Rotunda, and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capital One Arena.
Trump will be sworn in at 12:00 local time (17:00 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 be held indoors.
Crowds without seats in DC
Most of the more than 220,000 ticketed guests who were scheduled to watch the event from the U.S. Capitol grounds will not be able to watch the inauguration inside the building. Only a fraction will be able to fit inside the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena, where the inauguration will be broadcast and performers and parade participants are expected to perform.
On Saturday, Trump fans who had planned to attend the inauguration were already walking through downtown Washington.
Arthur Caisse, a 78-year-old retired teacher, and his brother Richard Caisse, a 64-year-old small businessman, had traveled from Connecticut to see Trump’s inauguration for the second time, after coming in 2017.
“It’s very disappointing because all of us traveled so much and so far to get here, and then go through the Congressional process to get tickets to the inauguration. We finally got tickets, now, boom. They say we might not even be able to be there. go to the (National) Mall,” said Arthur Caisse.
“I’m not disappointed because on Monday we will take back our country,” Richard Caisse intervened.
Debbie Koch, a 60-year-old information technology professional who had traveled from Wisconsin with her sister, said they were still planning to attend the rally at the Capital One arena on Sunday night if they could get in.
“We don’t know for sure,” he said. “We’re excited to be here.”
When asked Saturday how they would handle crowds of Trump inauguration ticket holders who couldn’t fit in the Capitol Rotunda or Capital One stadium, the Secret Service referred the question to event organizers.
Trump’s inaugural committee did not respond to requests for more information about the event at the Capital One arena on Saturday.
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 migration, boost U.S. energy production and other priorities.
Trump, whose first term lasted from 2017 to 2021, had refused to attend the inauguration of Biden, who defeated him in 2020. He left Washington for Florida before the ceremony and promised that “we will be back in some form.”
Two weeks earlier, his supporters had attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, seeking to delay lawmakers in certifying Biden’s victory.
Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday.
