Trump inauguration celebrations begin with Elvis impersonator

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STERLING, Virginia — President-elect Donald Trump arrived in the Washington area on Saturday evening for a celebration of his return to power ahead of an inauguration ceremony that has been upended by record cold temperatures.

Trump is set to take a victory lap on Sunday with a campaign-style rally in Washington, D.C., a day before he is sworn in for a second term four years after losing the White House to Joe Biden.

Trump’s “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” – scheduled for 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT) at the Capital One Arena – marks his first major speech in Washington since he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in protest against his defeat.

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Thousands of people breached the building in an unsuccessful effort to prevent Congress from certifying the results. Trump has vowed to pardon many of the more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the attack.

His rally remarks, along with his inaugural address on Monday, could offer a preview of the tone he plans to adopt in the early days of his second term in office. In recent weeks, Trump has disconcerted foreign allies by musing aloud about taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal and turning Canada into a US state.

The rally is likely to resemble the free-wheeling arena speeches that have been a Trump staple since his first White House campaign in 2016.

Trump flew aboard an Air Force plane sent by outgoing President Joe Biden to the Republican’s base in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump prepared his transition after winning the Nov. 5 election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. His wife, Melania, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, accompanied him on Saturday’s flight.

After arriving at Dulles airport in suburban Virginia, Trump traveled to his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington.

Elvis Presley impersonator Leo Days serenaded the incoming president and first lady ahead of a reception for about 500 guests and fireworks display. An aide posted a video on social media showing the singer crooning as the Trumps watched.

Frigid weather forecast for Monday prompted Trump to move the inauguration ceremonies from the iconic west front of the US Capitol building indoors to the Capitol Rotunda, and the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capital One Arena.

In the Capitol Rotunda, Trump will be sworn in at 12 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) then deliver an inaugural address, a speech that typically sets the tone for the president’s four-year term. He told NBC News the theme would be “unity and strength, and also the word ‘fairness.’”

It will be the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in January 1985 that the big event has been moved indoors.

Most of the more than 220,000 ticketed guests who had been due to watch from the US Capitol grounds will be unable to view the swearing-in inside the building. Just a fraction will be able to fit inside the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena where the inauguration will be broadcast and parade entertainers and participants are expected to perform.

On Saturday, Trump fans who had planned to attend the inauguration were already walking around downtown Washington.

Arthur Caisse, a 78-year-old retired professor, and his brother Richard Caisse, a 64-year-old small business owner, had traveled from Connecticut to see Trump’s second inauguration, after coming for the launch of his first term in 2017.

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