By Steve Holland and Gabriella Borter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump is set to arrive in Washington on Saturday evening for an inauguration celebration marking his return to power that has been upended by record cold temperatures.
Trump is flying in 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 Nov. 5 election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. His wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared are accompanying him on the plane.
Trump is expected to head immediately to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington, where a crowd of some 500 guests will view a fireworks display and musical performances that include Leo Days, an Elvis impersonator and Christopher Macchio, a tenor whom Mr. Trump has previously featured at political events.
The 78-year-old Trump is due to hold a rally with supporters inside the Capital One (NYSE:) Arena in downtown Washington on Sunday, the eve of his inauguration, as well as a post-inauguration event Monday afternoon.
A blast of frigid weather forecast for Monday prompted Trump to move the inaugural ceremonies from the iconic west front of the U.S. Capitol building to indoors in the Capitol Rotunda, and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capital One Arena.
Trump will be sworn in at 12 p.m. local time (1700 GMT) and then delivers his inaugural address, a speech that typically sets the tone for the president’s new four-year term, from the rotunda inside the U.S. Capitol.
It will be the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in January 1985 that the big event has been moved indoors.
CROWDS WITHOUT SEATS IN DC
Most of the more than 220,000 ticketed guests who had been due to watch from the U.S. Capitol grounds will be unable to view the swearing-in inside the building. Just a fraction will be able to fit inside 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 traveled from Connecticut to see Trump’s inauguration for the second time, after coming in 2017.
“It’s so disappointing because all of us 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’re saying we may not even be able to go to the (National) Mall,” Arthur Caisse said.
“I’m not disappointed because on Monday we’re getting our country back,” Richard Caisse chimed in.
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 Sunday night Capital One arena rally if they can get inside.
“We don’t know for sure,” she said. “We’re just excited to be here.”
Asked on Saturday how they would manage the crowds of Trump inauguration ticket holders who would not fit into the Capitol Rotunda or the Capital One stadium, Secret Service referred the question to the event organizers.
Trump’s inaugural committee didn’t respond to requests for more information about the Capital One arena event 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 that 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 ahead of the ceremony, vowing “we will be back in some form.”
Two weeks earlier, his supporters had attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to delay lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.
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