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What’s happening the day before Trump’s second inauguration
- President-elect Donald Trump rallied supporters onstage at the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., the day before he takes the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States. Earlier in the day, Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
- Trump announced on Truth Social that he would issue an executive order tomorrow delaying the U.S. TikTok ban.
- The festivities kicked off yesterday, with members of the Trump family and Trump allies participating in inaugural events in the nation's capital. But protesters also took to the streets in Washington yesterday, with thousands participating in the People's March before converging at the Lincoln Memorial.
- Tomorrow's swearing-in ceremony was originally scheduled to take place on the National Mall but will move indoors to the Capitol Rotunda because of a frigid weather forecast, Trump announced Friday.
‘TikTok is back’: Trump makes an appeal to young voters in his pre-inauguration rally
Trump — the oldest man to win the presidency — offered himself today as a champion of the youth, saying that decades from now, his youngest supporters would hail him as one of the greatest to call the White House home.
“Someday, 30 years from now, 40 years from now, 50 years from now, some of these young people are going to say, ‘I remember Donald Trump, he did a good job,’” Trump asserted here during a pre-inaugural rally at Capital One Arena.
Senate could begin voting on Trump's nominees tomorrow
Tomorrow afternoon, just hours after Trump is inaugurated, Senate committees will begin meeting to send his cabinet nominees to the full Senate for them to be confirmed.
It would take an agreement from all senators to be able to vote to confirm any nominees tomorrow, but Senate Republicans are hoping to get that agreement for Sen. Marco Rubio’s nomination to be Trump’s secretary of state and potentially for John Ratcliffe’s nomination to be CIA director.
Without an agreement, a nomination would take a couple days to get a full Senate confirmation vote.
Chinese vice president meets with Elon Musk ahead of inauguration
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other members of the U.S. business community in Washington, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry said.
Han "welcomed Tesla and other U.S. companies to seize opportunities and share the fruits of China's development while contributing to the advancement of China-U.S. economic and trade relations," the ministry said in a statement.
Musk's extensive business interests in China — including EV maker Tesla, whose biggest production base is in Shanghai — have raised hopes that he could have a moderating effect on Trump, who has vowed to impose tariffs of 60% or more on all imports of Chinese goods, threatening trade between the world's two largest economies.
Earlier in the day, Han also met with Vice President-elect JD Vance, according to the Trump transition team.
Han is the first senior Chinese official to attend a U.S. presidential inauguration, attending as a “special representative” for President Xi Jinping, who was invited to the event in a highly unusual move.
Ahead of potential Trump pardons, Jan. 6 prosecutor has 'no regrets' about Capitol riot cases
An attorney who worked on Jan. 6 cases as a federal prosecutor shared thoughts with NBC News today about recent news developments about Trump’s potential pardons of Jan. 6 defendants.
“It was always recognized that Trump might return to power and pardon the Capitol Riot defendants. And we all pressed ahead anyway. We did so because political considerations should not play any part in the Justice Department’s evaluation of facts and law, which showed that these were crimes — some of them terribly serious crimes — that warranted prosecution," the attorney said.
"If there are mass pardons, we can talk then about how I feel about it. But I expect my answer, and that of pretty much all my colleagues, too, is that I have no regrets about having pursued these cases. I fully believe that the effort remains highly consequential," the attorney added.
Trump addresses supporters at the National Building Museum
Trump said in remarks to supporters at the National Building Museum that Republican senators have been very understanding about his picks for Cabinet positions.
Trump laid into the Biden administration with familiar criticisms, referring to his predecessor's administration as a failure. Trump also said he would sign "close to 100" executive orders tomorrow.
"We will not waste a single moment in delivering on our promises to the people," he said.
There are fewer than 24 hours before Trump is sworn into office.
UAW president says in opinion piece his union is 'ready to work with Trump'
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain wrote in an opinion piece that his union is "ready to work with Trump."
"The corporate class rigged the deck and dealt American workers a losing hand. It’s time to reshuffle the deck and fix our broken trade deals for workers everywhere," Fain wrote in an article published today by The Washington Post. "The UAW stands ready to support any politician or administration that takes on corporate greed to do exactly that."
Fain was a staunch critic of Trump during the campaign, calling him a "scab" and referring to the Trump-Vance ticket as "lapdogs for the billionaire class who only serve themselves." The UAW endorsed Harris, and Fain vocally supported her.
Trump expected to sign more than 50 executive orders tomorrow
Trump plans to sign more than 50 executive orders tomorrow — and possibly more than 100 — on the first day of his second presidency, according to a person in his transition operation.
Trump, who is scheduled to take the oath of office inside the Capitol at noon, intends to sign several of the orders in front of a crowd at an event in Capital One Arena in Washington later in the afternoon. The inauguration-related events were moved indoors because of inclement weather in the nation’s capital.
JD Vance didn't address the crowd at Capital One Arena
Vice President-elect JD Vance was scheduled to speak during Trump’s pre-program this afternoon but ended up never taking the stage or making an appearance in the arena.
Vance did not speak at today’s rally because the speaker schedule got moved around a bit and he had a hard out, or an inflexible time of when he had to leave the arena, two sources familiar with the program and logistics said. Vance also wanted to ensure that Trump was able to deliver his remarks on time, one of the sources added.
Others in the pre-program original scheduling who spoke included Stephen Miller, Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Dana White.
Elon Musk also addressed the crowd, joining Trump midway through his speech. NBC News reported last week that Musk would speak at the rally.
Trump returns to Blair House
Trump returned to Blair House before he's scheduled to head to the National Building Museum — which is less than a block from Capital One Arena — for a candlelight dinner.
Trump concludes his rally speech
Trump concluded his speech after about an hour, which was in line with the typical length of his campaign speeches.
"What a great victory for everybody," he said, thanking his supporters as he backed away from the mic.
A live performance of "Y.M.C.A." then prompted Trump to do his signature dance move when the song plays.