Raucous MAGA rally punctuates events celebrating Trump on the eve of his inauguration

Stephen Miller, Trump’s pick to be deputy chief of staff and a key architect of the administration’s promised hard-line immigration polices, vowed that “justice is coming.”

“We are about to get our country back and our democracy back,” Miller said, adding “Donald J. Trump is about to save this country.”

Trump has promised to sign a series of executive actions, including on U.S.-Mexico border policy. Sunday was his first full day back in Washington and gave the president-elect a chance to energize core supporters before the official pomp of Inauguration Day. Trump had breakfast privately with Republican senators at Blair House, the president’s official guest residence, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and later posed for a picture with the 10 Republican female senators and his incoming chief-of-staff, Susie Wiles.

Unlike when Trump helped spark a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol and tried to retain power in 2021 after his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, officials did not expect massive protests, unrest or violence. Instead, jubilant crowds celebrated Trump’s second term and MAGA’s total control of the Republican Party.

Many arrived from around the country and were decked out in their fanciest clothes, including fur coats. Trump supporters filled parties at hotels and restaurants around Washington. As they moved between the festivities, some could be heard chanting “MAGA” or simply stating it as a greeting to fellow revelers.

The atmosphere was a remarkable turnaround from four years ago, when Trump left the nation’s capital in disgrace and skipped the inauguration of his successor. Trump blasted his way through the 2024 GOP presidential primary and won in November with an Electoral College margin unseen since Barack Obama was reelected in 2012.

Yet even with that comfortable victory and his party in full — albeit narrow — control of Congress, the incoming president is one of the most polarizing figures in U.S. history, with nearly as many fierce detractors as ardent supporters. That means it could be difficult for Trump to fulfill postelection pledges to promote bipartisanship while healing political differences.

The president-elect has insisted that unity will be a theme of his inauguration speech Monday, along with strength and fairness, but he also spent months as a candidate saying that if elected he would seek retribution against political enemies.

“January 20th cannot come fast enough!,” Trump posted on his social media site. “Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen.”

With frigid temperatures expected Monday, Trump directed most of Monday’s outdoor events to be moved indoors, and officials held a rehearsal Sunday for his swearing-in in the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda, which holds only 600 people compared to the 250,000-plus guests who had tickets to view the inauguration from around the Capitol grounds.

In-between victory celebrations, Trump took to his social media site to comment on the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the U.S. ban on TikTok.

“Hostages starting to come out today! Three wonderful young women will be first,” Trump wrote.

Overnight, millions of U.S. users of TikTok lost the ability to watch videos on the social media platform as a federal ban on the app took effect. Though the site later began flickering to life for some users, the disruptions reflected a new law requiring its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest for national security reasons.

The company made a personal appeal to Trump to intervene, posting a message saying, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”

Trump subsequently posted, “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” He promised to issue an executive order Monday “to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”

The president-elect also wrote that he was interested in the U.S. owning 50% of TikTok in a “joint venture” model, though he did not offer much detail on what that would look like. Incoming national security adviser Michael Waltz insisted that Trump could find a solution by Monday.

“I think we should all be confident that he can craft that kind of a deal,” Waltz told CBS’ ”Face the Nation.” He also noted that Trump discussed TikTok on a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping and they “agreed to work together on this.”

Trump also headed to snow-covered graves at Arlington National Cemetery, where he and Vice President-elect JD Vance — each wearing dark overcoats and red ties — walked together to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a wreath-laying ceremony that included the playing of taps. Trump mouthed “thank you” after placing the wreath.

The ceremony was also attended by his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, and other relatives, as well as many of the president-elect’s picks for top Cabinet posts and several medal of honor recipients.

Trump and Vance later spent nearly half an hour in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, talking with families of three soldiers who died in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing, as well as a fourth whom they did not identify.

The scene was far different than in August, when two Trump campaign staff members reportedly verbally “abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60.

Will Weissert, Fatima Hussein And Josh Boak, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Raucous MAGA rally punctuates events celebrating Trump on the eve of his inauguration

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