Sawt Falasteen - Trump, Biden head to Capitol for inauguration

Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden traveled by motorcade together to the US Capitol, where the inauguration was being held indoors due to bitter cold.

Earlier, they and their spouses met for a traditional tea at the White House.

"Welcome home," Biden said to Trump as he and First Lady Jill Biden greeted their successors at the front door to the presidential home.

The frigid weather has forced 78-year-old Trump's inauguration indoors, missing out on the customary massive crowds along the National Mall. However, the first hours of the most extraordinary comeback in US politics will be a blaze of activity.

The Republican vowed to unleash a blitz of around 100 executive orders undoing Biden's legacy and kickstarting his nationalist, right-wing agenda, starting with immediate deportations of undocumented migrants -- and reportedly ordering the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed Gulf of America.

Trump earlier attended a service at a church near the White House -- the same church where he controversially posed with a Bible in 2020 just minutes after security forces forcefully ejected peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters.

If Trump painted a dystopian picture of "American carnage" at his first inauguration in 2017, this time around he is mixing his dark vision with a more upbeat promise of a "brand new day."

"I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country," Trump told an inauguration eve rally where he danced with the Village People band.

- 'Ecstatic' -

Despite promising a new "golden era," the billionaire populist also campaigned on often apocalyptic depictions of the country in his victorious election campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

The incoming 47th US president said he would "stop the invasion of our borders" and reverse "woke" policies including "transgender insanity" in US schools. Executive orders targeting both the border and US culture wars are expected to top his list Monday.

At sunrise on Monday, the National Mall, where the inauguration was originally due to be held, was largely empty -- save for the Fairchild family, who traveled from Michigan to pay tribute to Trump.

"Ecstatic," said grandmother Barb, when asked how they were feeling, adding she thought the move indoors was made "to protect our president."

In his final hours in office, Biden issued extraordinary pre-emptive pardons for former Covid-19 advisor Anthony Fauci and retired general Mark Milley to shield them from "politically motivated prosecutions" by Tump.

Biden gave similar pardons to members, staff and witnesses of a US House committee probing the violent January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack by Trump's supporters.

But at the same time Biden has been at pains to give Trump a civil handover -- in contrast to 2021 when Trump refused to attend Biden's inauguration.

Biden said he had also restored the tradition of leaving a letter for his successor -- though he said the contents were between him and Trump.

Trump will make history by replacing Biden as the oldest president to be sworn in. He is also just the second president in US history to return to power after being voted out, after Grover Cleveland in 1893.

- Dominating Washington -

Due to the intense cold, Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will take the oath inside the domed Rotunda of the Capitol -- as Ronald Reagan did in 1985 -- rather than in front of a huge crowd on the National Mall.

"As soon as President Trump places his hand on the Bible and swears the Oath to the United States Constitution, the Golden Age of America will begin," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on X.

But there are still many concerned by Trump's promises -- including vows of retribution against his opponents.

He returns to the Oval Office more powerful than ever, capping a journey that saw him defy two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction to win the election.

Once a political outsider, Trump now dominates Washington.

Three of the world's richest men -- tech tycoons Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos -- will be alongside him for the inauguration.

Tesla, SpaceX and X boss Musk, who will head a cost-cutting effort in the new administration, promised at Sunday's rally to make America strong "for centuries."

For the rest of the world, Trump's return means expecting the unexpected.

From promising sweeping tariffs, to making territorial threats to Greenland and Panama and calling US aid for Ukraine into question, Trump looks set to rattle the global order once again.

His victory has also emboldened right-wing politicians around the world. Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is set to attend the inauguration even though foreign leaders are not normally invited.

O.Salim--SF-PST