Inauguration Day: Donald Trump Returns

At noon on Monday, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. The moment will cap an astounding political comeback, and start the clock on what promises to be one of the most contentious and transformative presidential terms in modern American history.

What to expect: Trump and his Vice President J.D. Vance will be sworn in at noon, in the Capitol Rotunda, by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. After that, Trump will deliver his inaugural address.

The decision to move the event indoors, a break with the modern tradition of holding it on the Capitol steps, was taken on Friday in anticipation of bitterly cold weather on Inauguration Day. This is the first time the inauguration has been held indoors since Ronald Reagan did the same, in 1985, also due to cold weather.

To accommodate some of the 200,000 people who had planned to attend, Trump announced that the Capital One Arena would host a live viewing event. But many who traveled long distances for the event were disappointed by the decision. Most ticketholders have been told they are now unable to attend.

Thousands also marched in DC this weekend, advocating for causes they believe are threatened by the incoming administration, such as women’s reproductive rights.

High-profile guests will likely include former President Barack Obama (but not his wife Michelle), former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush, as well as tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and, notably, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, whose company will be officially banned in the US starting on Sunday.

Monday's inauguration will also be the first to be attended by foreign leaders, including Vice President Han Zheng, Argentine President Javier Milei, and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.

Opera tenor Christopher Macchio is set to sign the national anthem at the inauguration. Country stars Carrie Underwood and Lee Greenwood are also set to perform.

The speech: The last time Trump stepped up to that podium, in January 2017, he delivered one of the darkest presidential addresses in US history, describing a landscape of “American Carnage.” This time, he is expected to sound lighter and more unifying themes, although Trump enjoys an adlib as much as anyone, so anything is possible.

Order(s) of the day: After that, he’ll head to his new (but old) digs at the White House, where he is expected to sign scores of executive orders that will set the tone for his administration. They will likely include measures to tighten immigration policy drastically, loosen restrictions on energy production, scrap US climate policy commitments, withdraw from the WHO, shrink the federal bureaucracy, and remove what Trump views as “woke” ideas on diversity in hiring at federal agencies and institutions.

Trump is expected, for example, to reverse federal government Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, and remove some of Biden's gender-related executive orders. At a rally this weekend, Trump said he plans to take action to “keep men out of women's sports.”

Then, it’s party time: In the evening, Trump will attend three big inaugural balls, where musical groups including The Village People and Rascal Flatts, and country stars Jason Aldean and Billy Ray Cyrus, will perform.