Republican Donald Trump is set to assume the U.S. presidency again Monday, calling for a “revolution of common sense” during his inaugural address, and then start signing a raft of executive orders to reshape the American political landscape to his liking.
“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump is expected to say, according to remarks his aides shared with The Wall Street Journal. “My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization.”
On a frigid day in Washington, Trump, accompanied by his wife Melania, Vice President-elect JD Vance and their families, began his second inaugural day eight years after his first by attending a traditional service for incoming presidents at St. John’s Episcopal Church across a park from the White House.
Afterward, the Trumps headed to the White House for a preinaugural tea with outgoing President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, before heading to the U.S. Capitol for Trump’s swearing-in ceremony in the building’s rotunda, where about 600 people will watch as the country’s 45th president also becomes its 47th.
It will be only the second time an American president has served a second nonconsecutive term after Grover Cleveland in the 1890s.
Trump, at 78, will be the oldest person ever inaugurated as president, eclipsing Biden who was five months younger when he took the oath four years ago. Vance, 40, will be sworn in as the 50th vice president and the third youngest in history.
Trump 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.
U.S. presidential inaugurations, a symbol of the Democratic country’s norms of a peaceful transition of presidential power, are traditionally held on the steps of the Capitol overlooking the vast sweep of the National Mall, with crowds of 250,000 or more watching the quadrennial event.
But with an Arctic blast of freezing temperatures hitting Washington — days ago Trump moved the ceremony into the Capitol Rotunda — the same spot where 2,000 of his supporters rioted in 2021 to try to keep Congress from certifying that Biden had defeated him in the 2020 election.
Several U.S. billionaires — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla and X owner Elon Musk — are expected to be among those watching the inauguration, as will be TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
Foreign dignitaries are expected to show as well, including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentina President Javier Milei and Ecuador President Daniel Noboa.
Former U.S. presidents Bil Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama plan to attend the ceremony, unlike Trump who skipped Biden’s swearing-in four years ago and continues to this day to falsely claim that he was cheated out of reelection in the 2020 election by voting irregularities.
After the swearing-in ceremony, Trump could almost immediately begin to reshape U.S. policies, either to undo Biden’s edicts and implement his own. He has long promised a sweeping deportation of as many as 11 million undocumented migrants living in the U.S. and a new tight border closure along the Mexican entry point into the southwestern U.S.
“By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have come to a halt,” he told supporters Sunday.
Trump also has promised to pardon many of the more than 1,500 of his supporters who rampaged through the Capitol on January 6, 2021, although he has not divulged the scope of his expected order. He has characterized those arrested as “patriots” who were wrongly prosecuted.
Trump has also promised to quickly impose stiff new tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese exports to the U.S. and other policy changes.
During a rally in Washington ahead of the inauguration, he told cheering supporters Sunday, he would “act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country.”
“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,” Trump said.
The traditional inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House has been canceled because of the weather, with bands, marching units, drill teams and the like now parading past Trump, his wife and other officials in his new administration at the nearby 20,000-seat Capital One Arena. Lavish black-tie balls are still planned for Monday evening.
