Donald Trump, who has overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts will this morning be sworn in as the 47th US president.
Donald Trump, who has overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts will this morning be sworn in as the 47th US president.
Guests have begun taking their place inside the Rotunda before Donald Trump takes the oath as 47 president. You can watch the ceremony here.
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Melania Trump have now arrived at the Capitol, and we are moments away from the ceremony taking place inside the rotunda.
Vocal Trump ally Elon Musk, the owner of Telsa and the social platform X, was seen along with Google’s Sundar Pichai and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos.
Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook were also in the audience.
The capacity shrunk significantly when the event moved indoors. However, the CEOS of Meta, X and Amazon all have better seats inside than Trump’s cabinet members.
Musk has also been tapped by Trump to help lead an outside government group called the Department of Government Efficiency to slash bureaucracy.
With the ceremony being moved indoors, 20,000 loyal Trump supporters are instead watching the ceremony from inside Washington’s Capital One Arena, home to the local NBA team the Washington Wizards.
The crowd there cheered enthusiastically when the giant screens began broadcasting President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, on their way to the White House.
Some chanted “USA! USA!” but it didn’t catch on with the half-full crowd, drowned out by the speakers playing The Killers song Mr Brightside.
The crowd in the arena has not been discriminating with their cheers — anything from a man holding a “Joe Biden You’re Fired” sign to a shot of Rudy Giuliani has inspired enthusiastic applause — but a rare boo erupted from the crowd at the sigh of Mike Pence walking into the rotunda.
Soon after a much larger boo came for the Clintons.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the bitterest of rivals for years, have taken the same vehicle to the inauguration ceremony keeping with political traditions.
They spent about 35 minutes in a private meeting before getting into the limo for the swearing-in ceremony.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, also left in a limo together for the swearing-in at the Capitol.
“Very well, thank you,” Harris replied to a shouted question as she left the White House and headed to a waiting limo.
Before his visit back to the White House, Trump kicked off his pre-inaugural celebrations with a church service in Washington where he was joined by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and fellow billionaires Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Hours before his swearing-in ceremony, the soon-to-be 47th president took part in the traditional service at St John’s Episcopal Church opposite the White House.
It was the same church where Trump awkwardly held a Bible upside-down in 2020 during protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.
Also in attendance was Trump’s wife Melania, his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, and Trump’s other children Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump. Apple Tim Cook, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, and podcaster Joe Rogan were also spotted.
Biden’s move came before he and First Lady Jill Biden welcomed Trump and his wife Melania Trump back at the White House. The Bidens greeted the Trumps on a gold-trimmed red carpet where they exchanged greetings and posed for photos ahead of a private meeting over tea and coffee.
“Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump after the president-elect stepped out of the car.
Biden wrapped his hand around Trump’s upper arm to escort him inside the mansion.
Biden hosted Trump at the White House for a pre-inaugural tea, restoring traditions around the peaceful transfer of power.
The outgoing president said he had followed tradition and written a letter to this successor and left it in the drawer of the Oval Office but declined to say what he said in the note. Trump wrote Biden a note four years ago.
with AP
Departing US President Joe Biden has used his last day in office to protect some of Trump’s adversaries from potential revenge, granting pre-emptive pardons that will thwart any attempts by the new administration to prosecute them.
Biden announced pardons for former COVID-19 tsar Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley and members of the January 6 select committee that investigated the attack on the US Capitol, including former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” Biden said in a statement. “But I believe these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.
The move was the latest in a series of pardons issued by the president before he leaves Washington, after a political career spanning half a century.
It comes one month after Biden sparked an angry backlash within his own ranks after pardoning his son Hunter, who was facing the prospect of jail time after being convicted for tax and gun crimes, despite saying for months he would adhere to the jury’s verdict.
Biden also recently commuted the prison sentences of almost 1500 people and pardoning another 39 Americans convicted of non-violent crimes, in the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
You can read more on Biden’s move here.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Inauguration Day in the United States.
Donald Trump, who overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, will this morning be sworn in as the 47th US president taking charge and setting out to reshape the country’s institutions.
Our outgoing North American correspondent Farrah Tomazin and her successor, Michael Koziol, are in a very cold Washington DC, where the ceremony has been moved inside due to the intense cold.
The event itself is due to start at 4am AEDT however there has already been several events and major developments this morning.
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