The unpredictable 45th president’s aides say his inauguration address will stress unity but an anxious world and an army of protesters may take some convincing

Donald Trump, the most disruptive political candidate in modern times, will on Friday be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, and face immediate pressure to deliver an inaugural address that can start to heal a divided nation and reassure an anxious world.

Nearly a million people are expected on the national mall in Washington for a ceremonial transfer of power that will observe time-honoured traditions and pageantry but usher in profound political uncertainties.

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Trump has promised to shake up the postwar liberal order, issued contradictory policy statements and, even before taking office, sparked anger in foreign capitals with his volatile approach. Questions have been raised over the character and temperament of a man who boasted about groping women and still picks fights with fellow celebrities on Twitter. The world’s sole superpower is on the precipice of the unknown.



“It’s like a Rubik’s cube trying to figure this guy out,” Vice-President Joe Biden told the New York Times in an interview published this week. “We have no freakin’ idea what he’s gonna do.”

Protests are expected on Friday, and a huge women’s march is planned for Saturday, as liberals dig in for four years of opposition to Trump, who enters office as the most unpopular of at least the last seven newly elected presidents, according to opinion polls.

He also takes power under the shadow of Russia’s alleged meddling in last year’s presidential election, which has led some Democrats to question his legitimacy. Up to 60 members of Congress will boycott the inauguration ceremony at the US Capitol.

Trump flew from his base in New York to Washington on Air Force One on Thursday and headed to the Trump International Hotel, a luxury establishment that has become emblematic of the many potential conflicts of interest facing the plutocratic president.

Trump attended a lunch at his hotel’s presidential ballroom attended by leading Republicans, including some of his cabinet selections. “Where is this?” he asked. “This is a gorgeous room. A total genius must have built this place.”



At least 28,000 security personnel from 36 state, local and federal agencies will be deployed for inauguration events reportedly costing $200m, divided between taxpayers and private donors. Parts of the capital are on lockdown, with steel barriers erected on normally busy streets, to head off disruptive protests.

Trump and his wife, Melania, will on Friday morning go to the White House for tea withBarack Obama and his wife, Michelle, even as house movers work upstairs to swap over their private possessions.

The inauguration ceremony will begin with performances by the Talladega Marching Tornadoes, the Rockettes dance troupe, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the 16-year-old singer Jackie Evancho. Many big-name celebrities are staying away and the public turnout is not expected to come close to the 1.8 million who braved the cold for Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.

At noon, in a scene not so long ago unthinkable to the political establishment, Trump will take the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. He will place his hand on his own Bible – a gift from his mother in 1955 – as well as a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anti-Trump demonstrators organized by RefuseFascism.org stage a protest at McPherson Square in Washington on Thursday. Photograph: James Lawler Duggan/Reuters

In an operatic tableau, standing nearby will be Hillary Clinton, the candidate Trump threatened to jail during the campaign. She received 2.9 million more votes than he did last November but lost in the electoral college. Former presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Jimmy Carter will also be present.

Trump will become the first US president in the 240-year-old republic who has never served in the military or held public office. At 70, he will also be the oldest in his first term, eclipsing Ronald Reagan’s record.

Tom Barrack, the head of the presidential inaugural committee, said Trump’s inaugural speech would focus on “the issues that unite us” and claimed that the divisions from the campaign would “vanish”. “What you’ll hear in his address is a switch from candidate to president,” he told the CBS This Morning show.

Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, added: “He wants to continue to talk about issues and areas where he can unite the country, bring it together.”

But every word of the speech will be closely scrutinised by America’s allies and adversaries around the world. Trump has rattled many by questioning the merits of the European Union and Nato, challenging China over Taiwan and the South China Sea and suggesting that sanctions against Russia could be lifted. He has previously dismissed climate change as a hoax.

After the speech, the Obamas will fly off by helicopter, headed to an air base and then on to a holiday in Palm Springs, California. For his supporters, the exit of America’s first black president will be a jarring sight as he makes way for a successor who pushed conspiracy theories that Obama was born in Africa, and who was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.



A military aide with a briefcase holding the US nuclear launch codes will leave the US Capitol in Trump’s entourage. During the election campaign, Clinton warned: “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”

Trump will attend an inaugural luncheon expected to feature Maine lobster, Gulf shrimp and Seven Hills Angus beef. The new president will then head to a 90-minute parade featuring more than 8,000 people, including members of the US army, navy and marines and the Boy Scouts of America. Later, Trump and Melania will attend the Liberty Ball, the first of their three inaugural balls, and take their first dance as president and first lady.

Despite the rituals, Trump may also set about reversing some of Obama’s executive actions within his first hours or days in office. He has pledged to rip up Obama’s biggest achievements of the past eight years and wipe out his legacy in areas such as healthcare. Many of his cabinet selections have deepened fears during a rushed fortnight of Senate hearings.

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The inauguration will set the seal on one of the most unlikely ascents in American political history. Trump was best known in the US as the host of The Apprentice when, in June 2015, he launched his longshot campaign at Trump Tower in New York, theatrically descending on an escalator. He said of Mexicans: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

The TV satirist Jon Stewart said then: “America’s id is running for president.”

Trump fired up his base by promising to build a wall along the Mexican border, round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and impose a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country because of fear of terrorism. He defeated 16 rivals, including governors and senators, to gain more primary votes than any Republican in modern history in what was frequently described as a “hostile takeover” of the party.

Then, in an unusually poisonous election against Clinton, he survived the release of a lewd videotape in which he bragged about groping women, as well as allegations of assault and harassment by a dozen women who came forward. He also insulted the family of a dead soldier and a former Miss Universe.

But he rode a wave of anti-establishment anger, especially in states hit hard by a decline in manufacturing jobs, that drew comparisons with Brexit. His rallies were rowdy, with huge crowds wearing his trademark “Make America Great Again” hats, chanting, “Build the wall!” and, with reference to Clinton, “Lock her up!”

On the campaign trail, Obama railed against Trump, saying he was unlike any past Republican candidate and warning that democracy itself was on the ballot. He said all the progress of the past eight years was at stake. Since Trump’s victory, he has struck a moderate tone and described their conversations as “cordial”. On Thursday, at his final press conference, he said: “At my core, I think we’re going to be OK.”

Not everyone agrees. Organisers of the Women’s March on Washington planned for Saturday hope to draw at least 200,000 people to express their opposition to Trump’s agenda. On Wednesday night, more than 100 people with glow sticks and rainbow flags accompanied by a truck blasting music danced through the usually quiet Chevy Chase area of north-west Washington, where the incoming vice-president Mike Pence, an opponent of gay rights, has been renting a home.

Pence told CBS: “I think people are going to see a president inaugurated this Friday who is going to keep the promise he made on election night to be president of all the people of this country. The polls weren’t always right during the election year and so I’m a little skeptical about the polls going into inauguration.

“But I can tell you that the president-elect and our whole team are ready to go to work and really just advance the kind of policies that, to borrow his phrase, will make America great again.”