WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump flew to Washington on Saturday for an inauguration celebration as freezing temperatures cast a shadow over the event marking his return to power.
Trump flew in an Air Force plane sent by outgoing President Joe Biden to his home in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Republican had been working 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 accompany him on the plane.
After arriving at Dulles Airport in suburban Virginia, Trump traveled to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, on the outskirts of 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 aide posted a video on social media showing the singer crooning as the Trumps looked on.
Trump, 78, is scheduled to hold a rally with 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 blast of cold weather forecast for Monday prompted Trump to move the inauguration ceremonies from the iconic west front of the US Capitol building to indoors in the Capitol Rotunda and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to Capital One Arena.
Trump will be sworn in at 12:00 local time (1700 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 inside the US Capitol.
It will be the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in January 1985 that the big event has been moved indoors.
People without seats in DC
Most of the more than 220,000 ticketed guests who were to watch from the US Capitol grounds 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 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 watch Trump’s inauguration for the second time after coming in 2017.
“It’s so disappointing because we all 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 say we might not even is. able to go to the (National) Mall,” Arthur Caisse said.
“I am not disappointed because on Monday we will get our land back,” said Richard Caisse.
Debbie Koch, a 60-year-old IT professional who traveled from Wisconsin with her sister, said they still planned to attend the Capital One convention Sunday night if they can get inside.
“We don’t know for sure,” she said. “We’re just happy to be here.”
Asked Saturday how they would handle the crowd of Trump inauguration ticket holders who wouldn’t fit into the Capitol Rotunda or Capital One stadium, the Secret Service referred the question to event organizers.
Trump’s inauguration committee did not respond to requests for more information about the Capital One arena event on Saturday.
When 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 ahead of the ceremony, promising that “we will be back in some form .”
Two weeks earlier, his supporters had attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to delay lawmakers from confirming Biden’s victory.
Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday.
