Trump says inaugural address will be delivered in Capitol rotunda due to cold weather
Donald Trump has confirmed that his inauguration ceremony will take place inside the Capitol on Monday, due to low temperatures forecast in Washington DC that will make holding the traditional outdoor swearing-in unsafe.
Trump made the news official in a post on Truth Social, which read:
January 20th cannot come fast enough! Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen. It is my obligation to protect the People of our Country but, before we even begin, we have to think of the Inauguration itself. The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows. There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way. It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th (In any event, if you decide to come, dress warmly!).
Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985, also because of very cold weather. The various Dignitaries and Guests will be brought into the Capitol. This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!
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Key events
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Donald Trump’s inauguration has a long guest list, and now everyone on it will have to somehow be packed into the Capitol. Here’s a look at who is expected to attend, from the Guardian’s Robert Tait and Jon Henley:
As a theme, it could be entitled “all the president’s friends”.
Donald Trump’s boast that “in this term, everybody wants to be my friend” – voiced at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago last month – is likely to be borne out in emphatic fashion at his second presidential inauguration on Monday.
As ever with Trump, there is a strong element of exaggeration. Not everyone wants to be his friend and detractors remain.
But the list of luminaries from the worlds of business, show business and even international politics attests to a transformed landscape compared with his first inauguration in 2017, when he was still the consummate outsider and – to many in the establishment – a renegade figure who struggled to attract big names.
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Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate and erstwhile partner of Elon Musk in remaking US government, is also planning to moonlight in a second job: as governor of Ohio.
The Washington Post reports that Ramaswamy will soon announce a run to replace the term limited current governor, Republican Mike DeWine.
The Post reports a source familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking as saying: “The statement is drafted. It is ready.”
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Updated at 13.55 EST
Paul Harris
Schumer details how he told Biden he could not win
With Joe Biden very shortly to leave the White House, it often seems that many Democrats, and their staffs, are engaged in a rewriting – or at least a respinning – of history to make it look as if Trump’s shock win was something they thought would happen all along.
The New York Times brings us a lengthy look at senator Chuck Schumer’s attempts to get Biden to drop out of the race. The key paragraph:
“If there were a secret ballot among Democratic senators, Mr. Schumer would tell the president, no more than five would say he should continue running. Mr. Biden’s own pollsters assessed that he had about a 5 percent chance of prevailing against Donald J. Trump, Mr. Schumer would tell him — information that was apparently news to the president. And if the president refused to step aside, the senator would argue, the consequences for Democrats and Mr. Biden’s own legacy after a half-century of public service would be catastrophic.”
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Updated at 13.39 EST
The day so far
In theory, TikTok faces a ban that starts Sunday, after the supreme court upheld a law requiring its Chinese owner to sell the popular social media app’s US business in order to remain accessible in the country. But the story is far from over. Joe Biden’s outgoing administration said they’ll leave the decision on whether to enforce the ban to Donald Trump, who responded to the supreme court’s decision by saying he has not made up his mind yet about whether to do so. Meanwhile, Mother Nature has intervened in Trump’s hopes for a well-attended inauguration in its usual spot on the Capitol’s west front. The president-elect announced the swearing-in ceremony will be held indoors on Monday due to dangerously cold temperatures that are forecast for Washington DC. The last president to take the inaugural oath inside the Capitol was Ronald Reagan, at the start of his second term in 1985.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
The inaugural parade will be held inside the Capitol One arena in downtown Washington DC, Trump said. It typically goes down Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the supreme court’s decision upholding the TikTok sell-or-ban law is “incredibly disappointing”.
TikTok’s peril is the gain of RedNote, another Chinese social media app that American users have flocked to in recent days.
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Here’s what it looked like in 1985, when Ronald Reagan’s swearing-in ceremony for his second term was held in the Capitol rotunda due to bad weather:
According to the National Weather Service, the temperature on 21 January 1985 was only 7F (-13.9C) at noon, the time the constitution specifies the swearing-in is to take place.
For an idea of what Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday would have looked like, had it not been moved indoors, here’s the scene from his swearing-in at the start of his first term in 2017:
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Updated at 13.03 EST
Seats have already been set out on the platform on the Capitol’s west front for Donald Trump’s inauguration, which will now be moved indoors due to the cold weather.
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Updated at 12.36 EST
Donald Trump added that the other festivities scheduled for his inauguration day will be held indoors, including the traditional parade.
They will instead be held at Capitol One arena in downtown Washington DC, home of the Washington Wizards NBA team and Washington Capitals NHL team.
The president-elect wrote:
We will open Capital One Arena on Monday for LIVE viewing of this Historic event, and to host the Presidential Parade. I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In.
All other events will remain the same, including the Victory Rally at Capital One Arena, on Sunday at 3 P.M. (Doors open at 1 P.M.—Please arrive early!), and all three Inaugural Balls on Monday evening.
Everyone will be safe, everyone will be happy, and we will, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
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Updated at 12.08 EST
Trump says inaugural address will be delivered in Capitol rotunda due to cold weather
Donald Trump has confirmed that his inauguration ceremony will take place inside the Capitol on Monday, due to low temperatures forecast in Washington DC that will make holding the traditional outdoor swearing-in unsafe.
Trump made the news official in a post on Truth Social, which read:
January 20th cannot come fast enough! Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen. It is my obligation to protect the People of our Country but, before we even begin, we have to think of the Inauguration itself. The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows. There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way. It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th (In any event, if you decide to come, dress warmly!).
Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985, also because of very cold weather. The various Dignitaries and Guests will be brought into the Capitol. This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!
Share
Reacting to the supreme court’s decision upholding the TikTok ban, the outgoing attorney general, Merrick Garland, said:
The court’s decision enables the justice department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security. Authoritarian regimes should not have unfettered access to millions of Americans’ sensitive data. The court’s decision affirms that this act protects the national security of the United States in a manner that is consistent with the constitution.
The deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, noted that the court found the law does not restrict freedom of speech, but rather addresses national security threats posed by the Chinese Communist party:
The court’s ruling also underscores that the bipartisan legislation upheld today is focused on protecting Americans, not restricting free speech. Rather, this legislation is about breaking the ties that bind TikTok to the government in Beijing, in a manner consistent with the constitution. The next phase of this effort – implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 – will be a process that plays out over time.
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Updated at 12.04 EST
Trump’s inauguration set to be moved indoors due to cold weather in Washington DC – report
Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday will likely be held indoors due to the very cold weather expected in Washington DC, CNN reports.
Inaugurations are typically conducted on a bandstand set up on the Capitol’s exterior west front, but the National Weather Service forecasts a high of 22F (-5.5C) on 20 January.
The last president to be sworn in indoors was Ronald Reagan, at the start of his second term in 1985.
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Updated at 11.46 EST
In a speech on the Senate floor, the Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said Congress and Donald Trump should work together to extend the deadline for when the ban on TikTok would go into effect:
We know a lot of things are up in the air with the TikTok ban scheduled to go into effect this weekend.
But everyone – the Biden administration, the incoming Trump administration, even the supreme court – should continue working to find a way to find an American buyer for TikTok, so we can both free the app from any influence and control from the Chinese Communist party and keep TikTok going, which will preserve the jobs of millions of creators.
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Updated at 11.45 EST
Trump says ‘everyone must respect’ supreme court decision on TikTok
Donald Trump elaborated on his thoughts on TikTok in a post on Truth Social, writing:
The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!
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Johana Bhuiyan
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the supreme court decision in the TikTok case “incredibly disappointing” and said it was based on “fear-mongering and speculation”.
“By refusing to block this ban, the supreme court is giving the executive branch unprecedented power to silence speech it doesn’t like, increasing the danger that sweeping invocations of ‘national security’ will trump our constitutional rights,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project.
In its opinion, the court wrote that the challenged lower court decision to ban TikTok was “content-neutral” because it imposes “TikTok-specific prohibitions due to a foreign adversary’s control over the platform and make divestiture a prerequisite for the platform’s continued operation in the United States. They do not target particular speech based upon its content.”
The opinion goes on to say that even if China has not yet used its connection to TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to access the vast troves of data that TikTok collects on its US users, it is a “reasonable inferenc(e) based on substantial evidence” that they might do so in the future”.
The ACLU called on the next administration to “fix or repeal this flawed legislation”.
“Taking away Americans’ free speech rights does not make us safer; it endangers our democracy,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at ACLU.
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Updated at 11.21 EST
White House says TikTok ban decision will be left to Trump
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the question of implementing a ban on TikTok will be left to Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
Here’s the press secretary’s full statement:
The administration, like the rest of the country, has awaited the decision just made by the US supreme court on the TikTok matter. President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the President’s desk: TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law. Given the sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday.
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Updated at 11.05 EST
