Ivanka Trump accompanied her father and the first lady on the diplomatic trip to Saudi Arabia. She was a trending topic in the country’s s...
Friday, January 20, 2017
President Trump: Washington Prepares to Be Upended
■ Once at work, Mr. Trump will attack President Obama’s regulations slowly but persistently, more “rolling thunder” than “shock and awe.”
Incoming president meets outgoing president
Mr. Trump, who will be sworn in as the 45th president within hours, went to the White House to meet with President Obama, the 44th.
The president met his successor on the gracious front steps on a red carpet and shortly thereafter, the first awkward moment came — Melania Trump handing Michelle Obama what looked like a large Tiffany and Co. box, and leaving the Obamas wondering what to do with it (and the world wondering what was in it.)
The soon-to-be-president attended church
Mr. Trump will take the oath of office under gray skies and drizzle, but first, he and his family took cover in St. John’s Episcopal Church across Lafayette Park from the White House.
The image of his extended family entering the church will be the first religious moment of many on Inauguration Day.
Donald John Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, ushering in a new and more unpredictable era in which he has vowed to shatter the established order and restore American greatness.
From the West Front of the Capitol, overlooking what may be hundreds of thousands of admirers and onlookers on a day when rain threatens, Mr. Trump plans to use his Inaugural Address to promise that he will use the next four years to rebuild the nation’s economy, reassert control over its borders and regain respect for the United States around the world.
Mr. Trump, wearing a dark suit with red tie and accompanied by Melania Trump in a powder-blue suit, intends to waste little time after taking the 35-word oath that will be administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to start unraveling the policies of his departing predecessor, President Obama. Within hours of taking office, the new president could begin signing executive orders freezing regulations put in place in the last weeks of Mr. Obama’s tenure and reversing policies on health care, immigration and other areas.
“It all begins today!” Mr. Trump wrote in a Twitter post. “I’ll see you at 11:00 A.M. for the swearing-in. THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES — THE WORK BEGINS.”
A day ahead of his inauguration, President-elect Donald J. Trump arrived in Washington to festivities and rituals.
While Mr. Trump showcased his pugilistic style during the transition, aides said he would use the ceremony Friday to call for national unity. “In the Inaugural Address, you will hear an uplifting, aspirational, visionary Donald Trump calling for us to take bold action fairly quickly,” Kellyanne Conway, his incoming White House counselor, told CBS News. “That’s what businessmen do.”
His son Donald Trump Jr. said the new president was coming to grips with the gravity of his new position, even if it did not necessarily seem so in public. “He’s been humbled by the whole process,” he said on MSNBC. “And you know, whether he shows that outwardly or not is, you know, is one thing.”
Through a long day of pomp and pageantry that will end with three inaugural balls, Mr. Trump will have the opportunity to revel in his moment of triumph. Surrounded by relatives, lawmakers, former presidents and other dignitaries, including Mr. Obama, and the Democrat he beat last November, Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump will take command of a country unsettled after one of the most polarizing periods in modern times.
His critics have made clear they will not defer even for a day to a new leader they accuse of playing to racism and hatred. Demonstrators gathered early Friday morning to protest the new president. Liberal groups have organized a march that they expect to draw as many as 200,000 to downtown Washington on Saturday.
For Mr. Trump, the ceremonies will cap a remarkable rise to power that defied all expectations, and his ascension amounts to a hostile takeover of a capital facing its most significant disruption in generations. While officially a Republican, Mr. Trump has at times assailed leaders of both parties and positioned himself as the ultimate outsider, making clear that he will follow his own instincts in determining the nation’s course.
America has never seen a president quite like Mr. Trump, the son and grandson of immigrants who grew up to become a real estate magnate, casino owner, beauty pageant operator and reality television star whose tumultuous love life played out on tabloid front pages.
Never before has the presidential oath been administered to someone who had never served either in public office or as a general in the military. At age 70, Mr. Trump will become the oldest president ever sworn in for the first time and the first born in New York since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He will also be one of the wealthiest presidents ever to enter the White House, with far-reaching business ties that have already raised questions about where his interests end and the country’s begin. He arrives in the Oval Office dogged by reports about Russian interference in the election on his behalf and, in the hours before his inauguration, fresh word of a federal investigation into the Russian ties of some of his advisers.
But Mr. Trump overcame the skeptics who did not take him seriously when he embarked on what seemed like a quixotic bid for the presidency. An Ivy League-educated mogul who lives in a tower with an 80-foot-long living room in the heart of the nation’s largest city, he turned himself into the unlikely leader of a populist movement rooted away from the country’s urban and suburban coasts.
His bracing candor, disregard for convention and willingness to offend whole sections of the population to make a point came across as refreshing truth telling to many Americans disenchanted with politically correct Washington elites in both parties. But his constant quarrels and impulsive Twitter storms have alienated many others, leaving him with the lowest support in polls of any president entering office in modern times.
He takes over on Friday without much of a team in place. Although he has named nominees for every cabinet post, the Senate confirmation process has slowed and few sub-cabinet officials have been announced. Mr. Trump has asked more than 50 officials from Mr. Obama’s administration, particularly in security agencies, to stay temporarily to ensure the continuity of government.
For the nation’s 58th inauguration, Mr. Trump opted largely to follow tradition. He and Mrs. Trump, a former supermodel from Slovenia, started the day at a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church across Lafayette Square from the White House, then made the short trip to the executive mansion for coffee with Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle. From there, the two presidents will share a limousine for the short motorcade to the Capitol.
In addition to Mr. Obama, former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are attending the ceremony, though all four opposed Mr. Trump’s election. The elder President George Bush remained hospitalized in Houston, where he was recovering from pneumonia. More than four dozen House Democrats announced they would boycott the event in protest.
Three religious leaders representing different faiths were to offer invocations. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, who once accused Mr. Trump of “nativism,” will lead off, followed by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and Pastor Paula White, a prominent televangelist from Florida.
No comments:
Post a Comment