Trump Inauguration Day: What to Watch For

Politics


President Biden will have a last opportunity to use his clemency powers before leaving office. Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States, will be sworn in as the 47th on a day that, because of wintry weather, will lack some of the usual pageantry of an inauguration even while marking a transfer of power free of the attempts to subvert a democratic election that hung over the last one.

And that will only be the start of what is shaping up to be an extraordinarily busy news day on Monday. After taking office, Mr. Trump has promised a quick flurry of aggressive actions. They include pardoning or commuting the sentences of at least some of those who carried out the assault on the Capitol in his name four years ago, tightening immigration policy, delaying a ban on TikTok and undoing executive actions taken by Mr. Biden.

The Senate could begin moving to confirm his cabinet nominees and pass legislation for his signature.

All that will take place against the backdrop of global developments, including a shaky cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza between Israel and Hamas that is in its second day.

Here’s what to watch as the day unfolds.

Mr. Trump’s swearing-in ceremony will begin shortly before noon Eastern time in the Capitol Rotunda. He is scheduled to ride to the building after meeting with Mr. Biden at the White House in the morning, a traditional nicety that Mr. Trump did not extend to Mr. Biden four years ago.

After the swearing-in ceremony is complete and Mr. Trump has delivered his Inaugural Address, he will be ushered into the President’s Room, which lies off the Senate chamber in the Capitol. There, he will complete a tradition of signing nominations that began in 1981. He could also begin to introduce major policy announcements.

Whether those announcements come immediately or later in the day, either at a rally he is expected to hold after leaving the Capitol or once he has settled behind the desk in the Oval Office, the work of his administration will begin quickly.

Mr. Trump has often boasted of the unilateral actions he will take on Day 1 of his presidency, from imposing tariffs on Mexico and China to cracking down on illegal immigration. Here are the major policy announcements, in the form of executive orders or actions, directives and proclamations, that are expected.

Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border “czar,” has said the public should expect action on immigration that will create “shock and awe” in the early days of the administration. Mr. Trump and his aides have not specified what steps he will take, but they are likely to include executive orders on Monday seeking to make it harder to cross the border and to seek asylum in the U.S., among other steps.

The New York Times has reported that the incoming administration was considering “post inauguration” immigration raids in Chicago on Tuesday targeting people who are in the country illegally. It is still unclear whether those plans will go ahead.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly promised to pardon people prosecuted for taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His choice for attorney general has suggested that he might not grant clemency to rioters convicted of assaulting police officers, but if Mr. Trump chooses to invoke a broad pardon, it could see the convictions or sentences of many of the nearly 1,600 people who were prosecuted wiped out. Some of the 240 defendants who are still serving out their sentences could be released the same day.

One big question is whether he will pardon Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, and others convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting the attack.

Over the weekend, Mr. Trump signaled that he would not immediately seek to enforce a legal ban on TikTok that was supposed to go into effect on Sunday, allowing it to remain in use for now. He has vowed to sign an executive order on Monday extending the time TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, has to sell the app and maintain permission to operate in the United States.

It is not clear how many executive orders Mr. Trump intends to sign on Monday. He has said he would act immediately to generate income from tariffs, vowing to create an “External Revenue Service” that would impose duties on Mexico and Canada. He has said he would direct the State Department to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and he has promised to suspend the resettlement of refugees in the United States.

While a number of policy decisions will likely be announced on Monday, many will take days, if not weeks and months, to be fully implemented.

The Senate is set to vote on Monday afternoon on a bill that would require the detention and deportation of migrants with uncertain or contested legal status accused of minor crimes or assaulting a police officer.

The legislation, the Laken Riley Act, passed the House last week and, if it passes the Senate, could be the first piece of legislation that Mr. Trump signs. He has supported the bill, which is named after a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student killed by a migrant who had entered the United States illegally. Mr. Trump repeatedly cited the murder in his campaign promises to deport immigrants in the United States with uncertain or contested legal status.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will also vote to advance the nomination of Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, to the Senate floor. The full Senate could vote to confirm him as soon as Monday.

The cease-fire between Israel and Hamas will continue into its second day on Monday.

Three Israeli hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners were released on Sunday, the day the truce took effect. Mr. Trump has taken credit for getting the deal completed after months of negotiations by the Biden administration. Helping to keep the peace there — and beginning to address whether there is an opportunity to halt the fighting between Russia and Ukraine — will be among the early foreign policy and national security issues confronting Mr. Trump and his team.



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