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International news
Published on Monday, January 20, 2025 By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
A hallmark of the
nearly 250-year American democracy is
the quadrennial peaceful transfer of
presidential power, and it is set to
unfold again on Monday, with Donald
Trump, set to be inaugurated as the
country’s 47th leader after winning last
November’s election.
Millions of
Americans are expected to watch on
television as the 78-year-old Trump
takes the oath of office for a new
four-year term in the White House while
President Joe Biden, 82, leaves the
presidency after a single term.
According to a report
published by Voice of America
Journal (VOA), only about 600
people will see Trump sworn in live,
with the ceremony moved into the U.S.
Capitol Rotunda at Trump’s behest. An arrival Sunday
night of an Arctic blast of frigid air
into Washington could push the
temperature to -6 Celsius at noon on Monday, when the
traditional outdoor swearing-in ceremony
would normally be held on the steps of
the Capitol overlooking the National
Mall.
About 250,000
tickets to Trump’s planned outdoor
ceremony on the Capitol steps had been
handed out to his supporters and
dignitaries but inaugural officials said
they now can simply keep the ducats
as commemorative souvenirs.
The traditional
inaugural parade along Pennsylvania
Avenue from the Capitol to the White
House has also been canceled because of
the weather, with bands, marching units,
drill teams and the like now
parading past Trump, his wife, Melania
Trump and other officials
in his new administration at the nearby
20,000-seat Capital One Arena, with
thousands of other celebrants literally left out in the
cold. Lavish black-tie balls are still
planned for Monday evening.
Trump will also become the second U.S. president to serve a second nonconsecutive term, after Grover Cleveland in the 1890s. ![]()
Beyond the pomp and circumstances of U.S. inaugurals, both Trump’s supportive Republican colleagues and opposition Democrats will be closely watching to see what policy changes he quickly announces with executive orders. Trump’s Day 1 promises are wide-ranging, but whether he signs orders affecting all of them or spreads out some of them to the coming days is not certain. Perhaps his most persistent claim from the campaign trail is that he plans to deport more than 11 million undocumented migrants living in the United States, starting with migrants who have been convicted of crimes and then others who have been ordered to return to their home countries after losing asylum bids to stay in the U.S. Trump has also vowed to quickly impose heightened tariffs on key trading partners, including Canada, China and Mexico. The incoming president says he plans to pardon many of the 1,500 supporters of his who stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to block Congress from certifying that Biden won the 2020 election. Trump has called those arrested and convicted “patriots” and “hostages” wrongly prosecuted.
Voice of America Journal, VOA, is a U.S. government news agency funded by the U.S. Congress.
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