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Donald Trump has confirmed that his inauguration ceremony will take place inside the Capitol on Monday, due to low temperatures forecast in Washington DC that will make holding the traditional outdoor swearing-in unsafe.
Trump made the news official in a post on Truth Social, which read:
January 20th cannot come fast enough! Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen. It is my obligation to protect the People of our Country but, before we even begin, we have to think of the Inauguration itself. The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows. There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way. It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th (In any event, if you decide to come, dress warmly!).
Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985, also because of very cold weather. The various Dignitaries and Guests will be brought into the Capitol. This will be a very beautiful experience for all, and especially for the large TV audience!
In theory, TikTok faces a ban that starts Sunday, after the supreme court upheld a law requiring its Chinese owner to sell the popular social media app’s US business in order to remain accessible in the country. But the story is far from over. Joe Biden’s outgoing administration said they’ll leave the decision on whether to enforce the ban to Donald Trump, who responded to the supreme court’s decision by saying he has not made up his mind yet about whether to do so. Meanwhile, Mother Nature has disrupted Trump’s hopes for a well-attended inauguration in its usual spot on the Capitol’s west front. The president-elect announced the swearing-in ceremony will be held indoors on Monday due to dangerously cold temperatures that are forecast for Washington DC. The last president to take the inaugural oath inside the Capitol was Ronald Reagan, at the start of his second term in 1985.
Here’s what else happened today:
Biden said the Equal Rights Amendment should be considered part of the US constitution, though he did not order the government archivist to add it to the document.
Progressive groups condemned Democrats who voted to advance the Laken Riley Act, which targets undocumented immigrants accused of theft. It may be the first piece of legislation Trump signs upon taking office.
The inaugural parade will be held inside the Capital One arena in downtown Washington DC, Trump said. It typically goes down Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the supreme court’s decision upholding the TikTok sell-or-ban law is “incredibly disappointing”.
TikTok’s peril is the gain of RedNote, another Chinese social media app that American users have flocked to in recent days.
Prior to her nomination, Kristi Noem was not seen as a key player on immigration, though her record as South Dakota’s governor reflects a hardline Trumpian approach.
During the hearing, Noem repeatedly touted her decision to deploy South Dakota national guard troops to Texas’s border with Mexico in 2021. She has faced criticism from her constituents for failing to send those same troops to assist with disaster relief in the wake of catastrophic floods that ravaged parts of her state last summer. As head of the department, she would oversee the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In one exchange, the newly elected New Jersey senator Andy Kim, a Democrat, referenced reports that Trump intends to rely on advisers like Stephen Miller and “border czar” Tom Homan – who do not need Senate confirmation – rather than the DHS secretary to carry out his mass deportation plans.
“If [Homan] is going to be making decisions, then he should come before this committee as well,” Kim said.
Noem insisted that securing the border which she described as a “war zone” and under “invasion” would be a priority.
Noem also pledged to end the CBP One app, which was launched by the Biden administration as a way to create a more orderly system for claiming asylum. Since Biden’s asylum crackdown, the app is one of the only ways for migrants to claim asylum.
Kristi Noem was asked whether she would stand up to Donald Trump if he tried to condition disaster aid funds to blue states such as California, which is dealing with historic fires.
Noem vowed to show “no political bias to how disaster relief is delivered to the American people” but dodged on whether she would confront Trump if he made such a demand.
Pressed by Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut if she would withhold aid from California if Trump directed her to, Noem said she would not comment on “hypotheticals”.
Blumenthal said it was “more than a hypothetical” given that Trump has already made the threat. She insisted that she would follow the law.
Fireworks there were not during Kristi Noem’s Senate confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
The tepidness suggested Noem, a Trump loyalist and the far-right governor of South Dakota, would face little resistance in her quest to win confirmation – and might even pick up a few Democratic votes to boot.
During the hearing before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, senators underscored the enormity of the role leading one of the largest departments in the entire federal government with more than 260,000 employees and a budget that exceeds $100bn.
Though border enforcement is a high-profile part of the department’s work, DHS is also responsible for agencies charged with securing critical infrastructure, preventing terrorist attacks, protecting the president and other leaders and responding to natural disasters.
Democratic Senators pressed Noem, the South Dakota governor who has gained prominence as a Trump loyalist and was even floated as a potential running mate before disclosing in her memoir that she had shot and killed their family dog, on whether she was prepared to lead a department she called “broken and dysfunctional”.
Republicans used the opportunity to bash the current homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, who they vilified to such a degree they ultimately impeached him.
Noem offered careful responses to questions, while taking care to praise Trump and his agenda repeatedly.
“Now, securing our homeland is a serious, sacred trust that must be relentlessly pursued and can never be taken for granted. Being safe within our borders here in America, is critical,” Noem said in her opening remarks.
“And yet Americans feel less safe than they have felt in decades.”
Here’s more from the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino on the Senate’s passage of the Laken Riley Act, which may be the first piece of legislation Donald Trump signs when he returns to the White House:
The US Senate on Friday cleared the way for final approval of a bill that targets undocumented immigrants accused of theft-related crimes, a preview of how Republicans will use their majorities to help Donald Trump deliver on his long-promised border crackdown – and an early test of how Democrats will respond.
The Laken Riley Act, named after a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan national, cleared a key procedural hurdle by a vote of 61-35, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans to advance it. A vote on final passage was scheduled for early next week, making it potentially one of the first pieces of legislation he signs as president.
Under the bill, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would be required to detain undocumented immigrants charged with crimes such as “burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting”. It would also allow state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they believed their states had been harmed by its failure to enforce immigration laws.
Immigrant rights groups and legal experts have raised concerns that the bill, if enacted, would infringe on individuals’ right to due process and could undermine federal authority to enforce immigration law. On Friday, progressives slammed Democrats for helping deliver Trump a swift legislative victory.
“Spineless. That’s the only word for the 10 Senate Democrats who handed Maga Republicans a gift they didn’t deserve,” said Sarah Dohl, chief campaigns officer of the progressive group Indivisible. “The Laken Riley Act is a racist, xenophobic attack on immigrants that shreds constitutional rights and hands power to extremists like [Texas attorney general] Ken Paxton to hijack federal immigration policy. It’s not just cruel – it’s a train wreck of chaos and bad faith. And yet, Senate Democrats caved.”
Progressives and immigration advocates are furious with the Democrats who backed a Republican-led immigration bill, setting up what could be one of Donald Trump’s first major legislative victories as president.
Ten Senate Democrats joined Republicans today to clear the way for final approval of the Laken Riley Act, a bill that targets undocumented immigrants accused of theft-related crimes.
The Senate voted 61-35, setting the bill up for final passage on Monday, hours after Trump is sworn in.
Immigration advocates have warned that it infringes on individuals rights to due process and could undermine the federal government’s authority to enforce immigration law by empowering attorneys general.
Reacting to the vote, Andrea Flores, a vice-president for immigration policy at the advocacy group FWD.us and a former Biden administration official, wrote on X: “After decades of gridlock, it’s stunning that the first bipartisan immigration reform bill that is poised to become law has no relation to border security, fails to protect Dreamers, & instead forces ICE to detain people merely accused of crimes.”
In a letter urging lawmakers to reject the bill, the ACLU said the measure was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” that “exploits the tragic death of Ms Laken Riley to expand the detention of people accused of non-violent offenses, without
actually improving public safety but while encouraging discriminatory and
arbitrary overdetention”.
Joe Biden this morning announced that he considers the Equal Rights Amendment part of the US constitution, but did not move to order it officially inscribed in the nation’s charter.
The amendment adds protection against discrimination on the basis of sex to the US constitution, and nearly made the cut to be ratified in the 1970s and 1980s, until a conservative counterattack stopped its momentum. But Democrats and progressives in recent years have argued that the conditions for it to become the 28th amendment have been satisfied, and in a statement today, Biden said he believed that to be the case:
On January 27, 2020, the commonwealth of Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the constitution as the 28th amendment. I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our constitution.
It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with my oath and duty to constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: the 28th amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.
However, he did not order the US government archivist to add it to the constitution. Late last year, the archivist publicly stated she does not believe it can be considered as ratified.
Here’s more on this story:
Ohio’s Republican lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, will take up JD Vance’s vacant seat in the US Senate as Vance joins Donald Trump in the White House from Monday as veep.
DeWine’s choice ends months of tussling among Ohio Republicans for Vance’s coveted position, which he held for less than two years.
Husted, 57 and a former Ohio House speaker and Ohio secretary of state, will serve until 15 December 2026. A special election for the last two years of Vance’s six-year term will be held in November 2026.
Donald Trump’s first vice-president, Mike Pence, with whom the president-elect has since fallen out, encouraged him to allow the TikTok ban to go into effect, if ByteDance does not find a US buyer for the app.
Writing on X, Pence said:
The Supreme Court’s decision upholding the law requiring TikTok to divest from the Chinese Communist Party is a victory for the privacy and security of the American people. This law was the result of a bipartisan cooperation and I commend it’s authors and supporters in Congress for enacting this vital law for our national security. The CCP has been put on notice that the American people’s data is no longer for the taking. The incoming Trump administration must be prepared to uphold this TikTok divestment law and put the privacy and security of America first.
Donald Trump’s inauguration has a long guest list, and now everyone on it will have to somehow be packed into the Capitol. Here’s a look at who is expected to attend, from the Guardian’s Robert Tait and Jon Henley:
As a theme, it could be entitled “all the president’s friends”.
Donald Trump’s boast that “in this term, everybody wants to be my friend” – voiced at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago last month – is likely to be borne out in emphatic fashion at his second presidential inauguration on Monday.
As ever with Trump, there is a strong element of exaggeration. Not everyone wants to be his friend and detractors remain.
But the list of luminaries from the worlds of business, show business and even international politics attests to a transformed landscape compared with his first inauguration in 2017, when he was still the consummate outsider and – to many in the establishment – a renegade figure who struggled to attract big names.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate and erstwhile partner of Elon Musk in remaking US government, is also planning to moonlight in a second job: as governor of Ohio.
The Washington Post reports that Ramaswamy will soon announce a run to replace the term limited current governor, Republican Mike DeWine.
The Post reports a source familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking as saying: “The statement is drafted. It is ready.”
The New York Times has in-depth reporting today on how the top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer informed Joe Biden he could not win re-election.
With Biden very shortly to leave the White House, it often seems that many Democrats, and their staffs, are engaged in a rewriting – or at least a respinning – of history to make it look as if Trump’s shock win was something they thought would happen all along.
The Times brings us a lengthy look at Schumer’s attempts to get Biden to drop out of the race. The key paragraph:
“If there were a secret ballot among Democratic senators, Mr. Schumer would tell the president, no more than five would say he should continue running. Mr. Biden’s own pollsters assessed that he had about a 5 percent chance of prevailing against Donald J. Trump, Mr. Schumer would tell him — information that was apparently news to the president. And if the president refused to step aside, the senator would argue, the consequences for Democrats and Mr. Biden’s own legacy after a half-century of public service would be catastrophic.”
In theory, TikTok faces a ban that starts Sunday, after the supreme court upheld a law requiring its Chinese owner to sell the popular social media app’s US business in order to remain accessible in the country. But the story is far from over. Joe Biden’s outgoing administration said they’ll leave the decision on whether to enforce the ban to Donald Trump, who responded to the supreme court’s decision by saying he has not made up his mind yet about whether to do so. Meanwhile, Mother Nature has intervened in Trump’s hopes for a well-attended inauguration in its usual spot on the Capitol’s west front. The president-elect announced the swearing-in ceremony will be held indoors on Monday due to dangerously cold temperatures that are forecast for Washington DC. The last president to take the inaugural oath inside the Capitol was Ronald Reagan, at the start of his second term in 1985.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
The inaugural parade will be held inside the Capital One arena in downtown Washington DC, Trump said. It typically goes down Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the supreme court’s decision upholding the TikTok sell-or-ban law is “incredibly disappointing”.
TikTok’s peril is the gain of RedNote, another Chinese social media app that American users have flocked to in recent days.
