Donald Trump has left St John’s Episcopal Church in Washington DC after attending a prayer service ahead of his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States.
The 78-year-old’s arrival at the historic church, located across from the White House, was his first public appearance on Monday as he prepared to return to the White House.
He is set for a momentous day as millions of people around the world watch on.
Mr Trump arrived at the prayer service, a tradition for president-elects on inauguration day, with his wife Melania at around 8.45am local time (1.45pm UK time).
They sat in the front row with their son Barron, 18, to their left, and incoming vice president JD Vance and his wife Usha to their right.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos were also spotted sitting in the same row as each other in the church.
Image: President-elect Donald Trump, Melania Trump and their son Barron walk to their seats. Pic: AP
Image: President-elect Donald Trump talks with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Usha Vance before the service. Pic: AP
The service lasted around 30 minutes.
Afterwards, Mr Trump returned to Blair House, often referred to as the “President’s Guest House”, where he stayed on Saturday and Sunday.
The Republican is hours away from being sworn in as president for a second time after he defeated Democratic candidate and vice president Kamala Harris in the US presidential election in November.
Before the ceremony inside the Capitol Rotunda, he will meet with outgoing president Joe Biden and his wife Jill for tea at the White House at around 9.45am local time (2.45pm UK time).
Mr Trump will be joined by incoming first lady Melania for the tea, which is traditionally held on inauguration day to welcome the new president.
The meeting offers a stark contrast to four years ago, when Mr Trump refused to acknowledge Mr Biden’s election victory or attend his inauguration.
This time around, the incoming and outgoing presidents will travel in the same car as they join a motorcade to depart for the Capitol at around 10.25am local time (3.25pm UK time).
Image: Donald Trump, left, and Joe Biden at the White House in November last year. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump, who will become only the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, is expected to arrive at the Capitol around five minutes later.
Mr Vance is expected to be sworn in at 11.25am local time (4.25pm UK time).
The 40-year-old will take the oath read by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a bible given to him by his great-grandmother.
Mr Trump is expected to take the oath at around 11.40am local time (4.40pm UK time).
Image: The US Capitol building ahead of the inauguration. Pic: Reuters
He will use both a family Bible and the one used by President Abraham Lincoln at his 1861 inauguration as chief justice John Roberts administers his oath.
Mr Trump will then deliver his inaugural address, which is expected to last just over 30 minutes and will likely be watched by millions of people across the world.
The ceremony will take place inside the Capitol Rotunda after it was moved indoors because of what is forecast to be the coldest inauguration day in 40 years.
It is not clear how the ceremony will be adapted to the setting, but only a fraction of the originally expected crowd will be allowed in.
Former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will be in attendance, in keeping with former incumbents of the White House attending inauguration day.
Neither gave an explanation as to why they were skipping the ceremony.
Image: Organisers prepare the Capitol Rotunda for the swearing-in ceremony. Pic: AP
A cadre of billionaires and tech titans who have sought to curry favour with Mr Trump and have donated handsomely to his inaugural festivities, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, will also be in attendance.
Following Mr Trump’s inaugural address, there will be a ceremonial farewell to Mr Biden and Ms Harris at 12.40pm local time (5.40pm UK time).
Mr Trump and Mr Vance will head to the President’s Room just off the Senate Chamber in the US Capitol for a signing ceremony watched by members of Congress at around 12.50pm local time (5.50pm UK time).
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1:10
Trump shows off his dance moves
An hour later the new president and vice president will attend a luncheon at Statuary Hall in the US Capitol hosted by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
Mr Obama, Mr Clinton and Mr Bush will not attend the luncheon despite receiving invites, Sky News’ US partner network NBC News has reported.
At around 3.50pm local time (8.50pm UK time), Mr Trump and the new first lady will travel to the Capitol One Arena for the parade celebrations to start.
Image: JD Vance is preparing to be sworn in as vice president. Pic: AP
The original plan for a traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue has been turned into an indoor event because of the cold.
Mr Trump will speak to his gathered supporters at the arena, where many of the people who had planned to watch the swearing-in ceremony outside will have watched a live broadcast of the inauguration instead.
The event is expected to feature remarks from Mr Trump and marching bands.
The new president will then head to the White House for an Oval Office signing ceremony at 5pm local time (10pm UK time).
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During Mr Trump’s speech on Sunday, he promised to sign close to 100 executive orders on his first day in office, including repealing “every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration”.
Country music band Rascal Flatts and country singer Parker McCollum will perform at the Commander in Chief Inaugural Ball, which is geared toward military service members.
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1:10
Trump shows off his dance moves
Meanwhile, the US rapper Nelly and disco band The Village People are scheduled to appear at the Liberty Inaugural Ball which is geared towards Mr Trump’s supporters.
Singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw will perform at the Starlight Ball, at which guests are expected to be big donors of the incoming president.
Mr Trump’s return to the White House marks a stunning comeback after he overcame criminal indictments and two assassination attempts to regain the presidency.
It also comes after he lost the 2020 election, before denying his defeat and attempting to cling on to power.
He directed his supporters to march on the Capitol while legislators were certifying the election results, sparking a riot that interrupted the country’s traditional peaceful transfer of power.
Donald Trump has said he will cancel all executive orders that he claims were signed with an autopen by his predecessor Joe Biden.
The US president alleged Mr Biden was “not involved” in signing the orders and claimed “the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the presidency away from him”. He did not provide any evidence for his claims.
An autopen is a device which reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect.
“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States.”
He added: “I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.
“Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury.”
Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.
Mr Trump has not provided any evidence for his claims, while Mr Biden and his former aides have denied they made decisions on his behalf.
In June, Mr Biden said: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.
“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
Mr Trump has also used an autopen, but claimed he only used it “for very unimportant papers”.
Image: Pic: Reuters
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0:31
Trump trolls Biden with new ‘presidential portrait’
Earlier this year, Mr Trump replaced a portrait of Mr Biden in the Oval Office with a picture of an autopen signing the former president’s name.
The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington DC is facing a first-degree murder charge.
It follows the death of one of the soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom.
The other soldier, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was taken to hospital in critical condition after the incident on Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, West Virginia’s governor said Wolfe remained in a “very critical condition”.
Image: Andrew Wolfe and Sarah Beckstrom. Pic: Reuters
US attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, now faces charges including one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
Pirro said there are “many charges to come” beyond the upgraded murder charge and that Lakanwal had driven across the country to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a revolver.
She said her heart went out to the family of Beckstrom, who volunteered to serve and “ended up being shot ambush-style on the cold streets of Washington DC by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree”.
President Donald Trump called Beckstrom, part of the West Virginia guard, a “highly respected” and “magnificent person”.
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Investigators are continuing to execute warrants in the state of Washington, where the suspect lived, and other parts of the country, Pirro said.
However, she declined to discuss the suspect’s motive, saying officials have been working around the clock on that question.
Officials said Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.
Kristina Widman, who claims to be Lakanwal’s former landlord, said he had been living in Bellingham, close to Seattle, with his wife and five children.
The #AfghanEvac charity said Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration.
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2:44
Trump has called for every Afghan national who entered the US under Biden to be investigated following the shooting of two National Guard troops.
On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration.
The director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible”.
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The President has since said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the US by revoking their legal status.
Organisations that work with refugees are worried that those who fled dangerous situations to start again in America will face a backlash after the shooting.
The US will review green cards issued to the citizens of 19 countries after two members of the National Guard were shot by a suspected Afghan gunman in Washington DC.
Joseph Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), revealed the order from President Trump.
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He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
Asked which countries would be affected, USCIS pointed to a presidential proclamation from June listing 19 countries.
The proclamation sought to “fully restrict” arrivals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
It also “partially” restricted arrivals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
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Image: Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Pic: Reuters
Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the suspected gunman in this week’s shooting and has been detained.
He worked as part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan, and reportedly came to the States under a programme meant to help Afghans who’d risked their lives assisting US troops in Afghanistan.
He’s thought to have driven thousands of miles to the capital from his home in Washington state, where he lives with his wife and five children.
Attorney general Pam Bondi called him “a lone gunman” who “opened fire without provocation, ambush style”.
Image: Gunfire in Washington DC sees two National Guard members shot
President Trump described him as a “savage monster”.
He was granted asylum in April this year, according to NBC News.
One of his victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died of her wounds, while the other, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in a critical condition.
Image: The two National Guard members who were shot in Washington D.C. as 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
Lakanwal reportedly came to the US under Operation Allies Welcome, a programme enacted by former President Joe Biden after he pulled American forces out of Afghanistan in 2021.
Edlow explictly targeted the previous president as he announced the new green card regime.
He wrote on X: “The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies.”
Speaking after the attack, President Trump was even more caustic.
He said: “The suspect in custody is a foreigner, who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth.
“He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.
“His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden – a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.”
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He continued: “This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation.
“The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about.
“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”