Written by Steve Holland and Gabriella Porter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Saturday evening for an inauguration ceremony marking his return to power upset by record cold temperatures.
Trump is traveling on an Air Force plane sent by outgoing President Joe Biden to his home in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Republican worked on his transition to power after winning the November 5 elections over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. He is accompanied by his wife, Melania, his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared, on the plane.
Trump is expected to head immediately to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, outside Washington, where a crowd of about 500 guests will watch a fireworks display and musical performances including Leo Days, an Elvis impersonator, and Christopher Macchio, a tenor singer. In which Mr. Trump has previously appeared at political events.
Trump, 78, is scheduled to hold a massive rally with his supporters inside the White House Capital One (NYSE:) arena in downtown Washington on Sunday, the eve of his inauguration, as well as a post-inauguration event on Monday afternoon.
Cold weather forecasts on Monday prompted Trump to move the inauguration ceremony from the iconic west facade of the U.S. Capitol to the interior of the Capitol Rotunda, and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to Capital One Square.
Trump will take the oath of office at 12 noon local time (1700 GMT) and then deliver his inaugural speech, which is the speech that usually sets the tone for the president’s new four-year term, from the rotunda inside the US Capitol building.
This will be the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in January 1985 that the major event will be moved indoors.
Seatless crowds in the capital
Most of the more than 220,000 ticketed guests who were scheduled to watch the ceremony from the U.S. Capitol grounds will not be able to watch the swearing-in inside the building. Only a small portion will be able to seat the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena where the opening ceremony will be broadcast and artists and participants are expected to perform.
On Saturday, Trump fans who planned to attend the inauguration were already milling around downtown Washington.
Arthur Casey, a 78-year-old retired professor, and his brother Richard Casey, a 64-year-old small business owner, had traveled from Connecticut to attend Trump’s inauguration for the second time, after coming in 2017.
“It’s very disappointing because we’ve all traveled so long and far to get here, and then going through the congressional process to get tickets to the inauguration. We finally get tickets, now, oh my God. They’re saying we might not even be here,” Arthur Casey said. “Able to go to the (National) Mall.”
“I’m not disappointed because we’ll get our country back on Monday,” Richard Casey said.
Debbie Koch, a 60-year-old information technology professional who traveled from Wisconsin with her sister, said they still plan to attend the Capital One Arena rally Sunday night if they can get in.
“We don’t know for sure,” she said. “We are excited to be here.”
When asked on Saturday how to manage crowds of Trump inauguration ticket holders who did not 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 Saturday’s Capital One Arena event.
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 immigration, boost U.S. energy production and other priorities.
Trump, whose first term lasted from 2017 to 2021, had refused to attend the inauguration ceremony of Biden, who defeated him in 2020. He left Washington for Florida before the ceremony, vowing, “We will return in some form.”
Two weeks ago, his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to delay lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.