WASHINGTON, Jan 19: Donald J Trump will take the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States of America on a cold Monday morning when the temperature outside is likely to fall to -6 Degrees Celsius. However, he and the attendees will be inside the Capitol Rotunda for a rare inauguration ceremony taking place indoors.
The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to start at 10 am US Eastern time, which will be 8:30 pm IST. The oath-taking ceremony returns to the Capitol Rotunda after 40 years.
The last time was in 1985 when President Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term in the rotunda also because of a bitter cold. That was also the first time the ceremony took place in the Rotunda.
Regular attendees will include President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, former President George W Bush and Laura Bush and former President Barack Obama but not Michelle Obama. Also not attending, according to reports, will be Vice-President Kamala Harris.
In a break from tradition, several foreign leaders are expected to attend — Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieck.
China’s President Xi Jinping was invited but he will be represented by Vice President Han Zheng and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Also among the guests will be tech industry titans Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Tim Cook of Apple and Sam Altman of OpenAI. Shou Chew, CEO of TikTok, which went dark Sunday after a law banning it was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier in the week.
After the ceremony, Trump returned to the White House in a ceremonial parade. Presidents tend to walk the final stretch, accompanied by their spouses and family.
A flurry of executive orders is expected to announce the implementation of poll promises Trump has made. They are expected to be immigration and trade and could include a range of issues.
Trump is also expected to issue presidential pardons to some of those convicted in connection with the attack on the Capitol in 2021 January to prevent a joint sitting of Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
President Trump is expected to attend two official inaugural balls in the evening — the Liberty Ball and the Commander in Chief Ball. (IANS)
