Second inauguration of Donald Trump
The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States took place on Monday, January 20, 2025. Due to freezing temperatures and high winds, it was held inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. It was the 60th U.S. presidential inauguration and the second inauguration of Trump as U.S. president, marking the commencement of his second and final presidential term, and the first term of JD Vance as vice president. It was the second re-inauguration for a former U.S. president, after the second inauguration of Grover Cleveland in 1893. Trump's first inauguration was eight years earlier, on January 20, 2017.
The event included a swearing-in ceremony, a signing ceremony, an inaugural luncheon, a first honors ceremony, and then a procession and parade at Capital One Arena. Inaugural balls were held at various venues before and after the inaugural ceremonies. The Capitol rotunda can seat approximately 600 people; the number of attendees has not been disclosed.
Context
The inauguration marked the formal culmination of Donald Trump's presidential transition that began with his election on November 6, 2024, him becoming the president-elect. Trump and his running mate JD Vance were formally elected by the Electoral College on December 17, 2024. The victory was certified by an electoral vote tally by a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2025. In accordance with ArticleI, Section6 of the United States Constitution, Vance resigned his seat in the U.S. Senate effective midnight on January 10, 2025.Planning
Held on the third Monday of January, the inauguration was on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which marked the third time an inauguration occurred on the same date as the holiday, following the second inaugurations of Bill Clinton in 1997 and Barack Obama in 2013. On January 17, Trump announced the inauguration ceremony would be moved inside to the Capitol rotunda due to expected cold weather, like the public second inauguration of Ronald Reagan on January 21, 1985.Joint Congressional Committee
In May 2024, both houses of Congress appointed a Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies to oversee the construction of the platform and other temporary structures that were expected to be used for the later-canceled outdoor ceremonies and celebrations.Construction of the inaugural platform ceremonially began on September 18, 2024, with the driving of the first nail by United States senator Amy Klobuchar using a nail made from iron ore mined and processed from the Iron Range in Minnesota.
Security and operations
In October 2024, the United States Capitol Police conducted an intelligence assessment that concluded an activist group "with a history of large-scale demonstrations involving illegal activity plans to protest the Inauguration regardless of the outcome" and that other groups protesting the Israel–Hamas war were "nearly certain to target the Inauguration" regardless of who would be elected president. According to the New York Times, organizers of the 2017 Women's March were committed to recreating it under the refreshed branding "People's March". On January 18, thousands participated in the march, but turnout fell short of the expected 50,000 attendees.Agencies expected to be involved with planning of the ceremony include the U.S. Capitol Police, the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police, and the U.S. Park Police. Twenty-four states offered National Guard support for the electoral vote certification and inaugural ceremonies.
On January 17, approximately 8,000 National Guard soldiers were deputized as special deputy United States marshals, providing them police authority within Washington, D.C.
Inaugural Committee
On November 9, 2024, Trump announced the formation of the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, Inc., a 501 organization dedicated to planning inaugural events. The committee co-chairs were real-estate developer Steve Witkoff and former U.S. senator Kelly Loeffler, longtime friends and supporters of Trump.Donations
Various technology companies and their leaders pledged donations and services for the inauguration. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said through a spokesperson that he would make a $1 million personal donation. Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta and the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, sent $1 million. It was also reported in The Wall Street Journal that Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, offered to stream the ceremony on Amazon Prime Video, and this amounted to a $1 million in-kind donation on top of a $1 million cash donation. Apple CEO Tim Cook personally donated $1 million. Uber and its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi each agreed to donate $1 million to the inauguration. Alphabet donated $1 million and supported an inauguration livestream with a direct link on the homepage of YouTube. Microsoft, Adobe, and Perplexity also donated $1 million. NPR quoted Margaret O'Mara, a Silicon Valley historian at the University of Washington, as saying these donations were due to some of these tech leaders, having previously been in conflict with Trump, wishing to reduce regulatory pressure on their companies under the incoming administration.Ford Motor Company and General Motors announced that they would donate $1 million each and provide a fleet of vehicles for the inauguration. Toyota, Chevron, Hyundai, and Stellantis also donated $1 million.
Various financial services businesses and their leaders donated at least $1 million, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Kraken, Coinbase, Intuit, Robinhood, Ken Griffin, Ripple, and Ondo Finance.
Major donors from the telecommunications industry included AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications.
Major donors from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry included PhRMA, Pfizer, and Hims & Hers.
Major donors from the manufacturing and industrial sector included Stanley Black & Decker, Pratt Industries, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin.
Other major donors included Delta Air Lines and McDonald's.
In April 2025, it was reported that $239 million was donated to Trump's inaugural committee, more than doubling the previous record of $107 million raised for Trump's 2017 inauguration, including 29 gifts totaling $13 million from subsidiaries of companies based outside the United States.
Pre-inaugural events
Arlington National Cemetery wreath laying ceremony
On the morning of January 19, Trump and Vice President-elect Vance visited the Arlington National Cemetery, where they placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They were joined by family members of some of the victims of the 2021 Kabul airport attack.Make America Great Again Victory Rally
On the evening of January 19, the Trump campaign organized the "Make America Great Again Victory Rally", a rally for supporters at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The event featured performances by Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, as well as speeches by Trump and Megyn Kelly. Trump also performed his signature dance to a rendition of "Y.M.C.A." performed by Village People, who joined him on stage.Church service and White House reception
On the morning of the inauguration, on January 20, after staying the night at the Blair House, the traditional house used by the incoming president-elect due to its proximity to the White House, Trump and his wife, Melania, and JD Vance and his wife, Usha, attended a church service at St. John's Episcopal Church. Every president since James Madison has attended the church at least once, while every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has attended it on the day of their inauguration. The service was led by Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist minister who campaigned for Trump during the election.After the church service, Trump and his wife went to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. The Bidens greeted the Trumps, and they then posed for photos in front of the White House press corps. Afterward, they held a tea reception inside the White House, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, and JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance. As per tradition, following the meeting between the president and the president-elect, they shared the presidential motorcade limousine, and made their way to the Capitol for the inaugural ceremony.
Inaugural events
Presidential communications
The transfer of power included the transition of official administration X accounts @POTUS and @VP. Members of the Trump administration also assumed ownership of a number of institutional accounts, including @WhiteHouse, @FLOTUS for First Lady Melania Trump, @SLOTUS for Second Lady Usha Vance, @WHCOS for White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and @PressSec for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. New executive branch websites were initialized; previous administrations' websites reside in the National Archives.Attendees
Trump's inauguration marked the first time that a U.S. president-elect formally welcomed foreign leaders to the ceremony.Outgoing U.S. president Joe Biden, outgoing U.S. vice president Kamala Harris, former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama attended the inauguration. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush also attended the inauguration, but former first lady Michelle Obama was absent. Former U.S. vice presidents Dan Quayle and Mike Pence and former second lady Marilyn Quayle were also in attendance, while former vice presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney and former second lady Karen Pence were absent. New York mayor Eric Adams and media proprietor Rupert Murdoch also attended the inauguration.
Chinese president Xi Jinping was invited to the ceremony, but sent vice president Han Zheng as his special representative instead. This marked the first time a senior official of China's government was sent to a US presidential inauguration. El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni were also reportedly invited. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially planned to attend, but ultimately did not after not receiving a formal invitation. Argentine president Javier Milei and the last democratically-elected Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili had been reportedly planning to attend. Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has indicated that he was an invitee, but he would have needed his confiscated passport to be returned by the government in order to travel. Russia confirmed that President Vladimir Putin did not receive an invitation. Trump stated that he had not invited President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his inauguration but expressed willingness to welcome him if he decided to attend. Current British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not attend the inauguration, while former British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss attended. Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, first lady Lavinia Valbonesi, and Paraguayan president Santiago Peña were also planning to attend. Edmundo González, whom the U.S. government recognizes as the winner of the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, also reportedly attended.
The foreign ministers of Quad nations, S. Jaishankar from India, Penny Wong from Australia, and Takeshi Iwaya from Japan, also attended the inauguration. They were expected to meet with Trump the day after the ceremony for discussions.
A number of right-wing populist politicians attended the inauguration. French Reconquête politicians Éric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo, National Rally politicians Louis Aliot, Julien Sanchez, and Alexandre Sabatou, and Identity–Liberties leader Marion Maréchal, attended the ceremony. Spanish Vox leader Santiago Abascal, Belgian Vlaams Belang leader Tom Van Grieken, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, Alternative for Germany co-leader Tino Chrupalla, Estonian Conservative People's Party leader Martin Helme, Alliance for the Union of Romanians leader George Simion, Danish People's Party leader Morten Messerschmidt, Portuguese Chega leader Andre Ventura, Hungarian Fidesz vice-president Kinga Gál, and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki were also in attendance. From the Czech Patriots.eu representation were invited ANO MEP Ondřej Knotek and vice president of the Patriots for Europe MEP Klára Dostálová, Přísaha senator Robert Šlachta, MEP Filip Turek from the Motorists for Themselves, as well as their founder and leader Petr Macinka, the latter of whom – as manager of the Václav Klaus Institute – was also invited to the Foster's Outriders Foundation inauguration ball at the Museum of the Bible to meet Tucker Carlson and Rick Santorum. AfD Members of the Bundestag Jan Wenzel Schmidt and Beatrix von Storch alongside her husband Sven von Storch have confirmed their attendance. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, Freedom Party of Austria leader Herbert Kickl, and Bulgarian Revival leader Kostadin Kostadinov were invited, but did not attend the ceremony. Hristijan Mickoski, Prime Minister of North Macedonia, was invited to the inauguration.
Numerous businesspeople including Bernard Arnault, Delphine Arnault, Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg, among the world's richest people, attended the inauguration. They had a prominent role at the event, seated together on the platform alongside other distinguished guests, including Cabinet nominees and elected officials. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew attended the inauguration. Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, Apple's Tim Cook, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Reliance's Mukesh Ambani, and Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi also attended the event. Las Vegas Sands owner Miriam Adelson also attended the ceremony.
Several celebrities and sports figures – including Victor Willis, Carrie Underwood, Christopher Macchio, Antonio Brown, Mike Tyson, Jorge Masvidal, Evander Kane, Gianni Infantino, Anuel AA, Justin Quiles, Rod Wave, Kodak Black, Lee Greenwood, Fivio Foreign, Jake and Logan Paul, Theo Von, Conor McGregor, Danica Patrick, Dana White, Joe Rogan, and Wayne Gretzky – attended the ceremony. Media personalities Charlie Kirk, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson also attended the event.