Friday
- Trump, Pence and their families will attend a church services at St. John’s Episcopal. The ritual of attending morning church services before the inauguration was started by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.
- Trump and outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama will meet over coffee at the White House. The two leaders will then travel together to the Capitol with their wives for the inauguration ceremony.
- The ceremony begins at 9:30 a.m. ET. The theme of the inauguration is “Uniquely American.” The vice-president will be sworn in first by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
- Trump will be sworn in at noon by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. Trump will then deliver his inaugural address. Past great inaugural addresses have included Kennedy’s famous, “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,” Reagan’s “We — the American people — we are the solution,” and Roosevelt’s “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Historian Douglas Brinkley told CNN that he met with Trump, who plans on writing the address himself along with a policy aide. He also said Trump planned to keep his address short.
- Following Trump’s address, the Obama family will depart Washington aboard Marine One.
- Trump and Pence will be honoured at a luncheon in the Capitol.
- A procession of floats, soldiers and marching bands will pass by Trump during the Inaugural Parade along Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump’s team says the parade will last about 90 minutes. (Dwight Eisenhower presided over the longest parade — at more than 4.5 hours — in 1953).