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.

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.

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He will also become the first convicted criminal to become president when he takes the oath eight years after his first inauguration in January 2017.

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).

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).

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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.

However, there will be two notable absences: former first lady Michelle Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Neither gave an explanation as to why they were skipping the ceremony.

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).

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.

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”.

A trio of glitzy balls will follow in the evening, punctuated by musical performances and remarks from Mr Trump.

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.

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.

In the hours before Donald Trump’s inauguration the world is preparing for a presidency that has huge implications for international security, global trade and the fight against climate change.

Here Sky News’ correspondents explain what Trump 2.0 could mean for their area of expertise.

Is Trump about to end the Ukraine war in a day?

Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor

Donald Trump will want to strike a deal on Russia’s war in Ukraine that brings him a “win” for ending the fighting, but without also gifting a victory to Vladimir Putin.

Crucially, any settlement must be acceptable to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has spent the past few months working hard to impress the value of Kyiv as an ally upon the incoming US leader – and the global menace posed by an emboldened Moscow.

Such a tricky balancing act – after almost three years of all-out war, hundreds of thousands of casualties and millions of Ukrainians displaced from their homes – will require careful, patient diplomacy.

This was not always a feature of Mr Trump’s first term in office, though his unpredictable, forceful style could yet bring something new to the table that enables the two warring sides to compromise in ways that had previously been impossible to imagine.

In a sign of reality biting, previous claims by the president-elect that he could end the conflict in a day have become less binding. General Keith Kellogg, his envoy to Ukraine and Russia, now says he hopes to secure a deal within the first 100 days of a Trump presidency.

Read Deborah’s full analysis here

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For Europe, Trump means a reset

By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent

In Europe, the inauguration of Donald Trump will mean a reset in politics, trade and security.

Europeans have heard him talk about cutting support for Ukraine, introducing tariffs and forcing NATO members to massively increase defence spending. The question, as ever, is whether his actions will match his rhetoric.

Mr Trump has promised a rapid end to the Ukraine war, but he hasn’t said how. If Russia, after so much time and loss of life, felt it was suddenly in the ascendency over a weakened Ukraine, it might demand the sort of deal that would unsettle the whole of Eastern Europe.

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Mr Trump has previously been ambiguous about his support for NATO, so there will be plenty across Europe who push for their nations to spend more on defence and be less reliant on America.

And Denmark will continue to push back hard against Mr Trump’s intention of either buying or seizing Greenland. The Danes will expect, and surely receive, wholehearted backing from both the EU and NATO.

But the diplomats have their work cut out. Mr Trump is likely to introduce more tariffs against some countries, most notably China.

But will he do the same to Europe, or will he decide that it’s better to bring old friends into the tent? Certainly, Europe – struggling with poor growth in its biggest economies – would desperately want to avoid tit-for-tat tariffs.

Read Adam’s full analysis here

Trump might not be as damaging to climate action as some fear

By Victoria Seabrook, climate reporter

Donald Trump’s reelection has been likened to taking a “wrecking ball” to climate action. But it might not be so bad.

Certainly, the incoming president wants to ban new offshore “windmills” (his disdaining term for turbines), unplug any stops on oil and gas and roll back environmental rules, again.

On day one, he is expected to wrench the US out of global climate obligations under the Paris Agreement, which he says kills its economy.

As America is the second-largest emitter in the world, his actions will reverberate around the planet, not just by fuelling climate change that knows no borders, but by providing cover for others to do the same.

But America was no climate saint to begin with.

It was already a laggard in cutting emissions and paying into climate funding for developing nations. Oil production reached record levels under Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, the global transition to clean energy is not just underway but “unstoppable”, say advocates. China’s enormous wind and solar installations are a case in point.

Back in the US, some regional leaders will plough on with their own climate targets.

The US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors representing half the population – are still aiming to meet Biden’s goal of cutting emissions by 61%, which he rushed through just before Trump’s return to the White House.

Perhaps the climate movement is just putting a brave face on it when it says America is still in the fight.

His impact on global climate efforts will be felt for years. But the extent of that is not a done deal.

Read Victoria’s full analysis here

Trump keeping China wondering what he’ll do

By Nicole Johnston, Asia correspondent

No doubt China and the Indo-Pacific region are gaming out how to handle a second Trump presidency, but given the high degree of unpredictability ahead, the best approach is likely to be a cautious wait-and-see.

Mr Trump has railed against China’s export-driven economy and trade surplus with the US. He has also called out China’s export of the chemical precursors for fentanyl, blaming it for the US opioid crisis.

On the campaign trail, Mr Trump brought up one of his favourite anti-China lines by calling COVID-19, the “China virus”.

He has threatened tariffs of up to 60 per cent on Chinese goods.

This hardly makes for warm relations. But in classic Trump style, the great disrupter is also engaging with President Xi Jinping and keeping China, and the rest of the world wondering, what will he do?

The two leaders have held a rare phone conversation. Mr Trump said they discussed trade, fentanyl and TikTok.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr Trump has told advisers he wants to travel to China after taking office.

Before the election, he told the same newspaper that China would not provoke him because Mr Xi knows he’s “crazy”.

Mr Trump invited Mr Xi to the inauguration. The Chinese president declined, but is sending his vice-president, Han Zheng.

Mr Trump has a penchant for strongman leaders and autocrats. He has previously expressed his admiration for Xi Jinping.

The president-elect is keeping the Chinese off balance. Will it be confrontation or concord? No one knows.

The Chinese do not want a trade war with the US. But if Mr Trump’s isolationist foreign policy preference means China is left to expand its influence in this region and beyond, Beijing will regard that as a major advantage.

The moment the world changed

By Ed Conway, economics and data editor

There’s a fair chance that when historians look back at the era we’re currently in, they will describe this – the second inauguration of Donald Trump – as the moment the world changed.

This, they may say (yes, of course, it all depends on what happens next) was the moment the 35-year long period of globalisation that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall gave way to a new era. It was the moment the prevailing assumptions among the governing elite – that free trade and free movement of people were critical principles of policy – were replaced by new principles.

Those principles – that barriers to migration flows and tariffs on trade flows are a valid part of the policy toolkit – are not exactly new. Indeed, look back over the past two centuries, and you see that every 75 years or so, the pendulum swings to and from an adherence to free trade.

Nor is it entirely true to say Donald Trump changed everything: look at Joe Biden’s policies while in office, and you see that far from reversing the Trump 1.0 stance on China, Mr Biden reinforced it with new tariffs and protectionist measures.

Even so, historians tend to be drawn towards symbolic moments, and this is certainly one of them. Americans have given their popular support to a president who not only espouses a very different rendition of American international engagement to most of his post-war predecessors but glorifies it.

Since Franklin Roosevelt, one of the overarching goals of American policy was to use its power to try to seek international stability and to enshrine democracy and certain social and economic values (the “Washington consensus” as it became known).

The Trump 2.0 era seems to suggest that model is now over.

The consequences are likely to be profound.

Read Ed’s full analysis here

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Sky News has released the first episode of its new podcast Trump 100 – a daily show covering President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.

On Trump’s inauguration day, Sky News’ US correspondents Martha Kelner, Mark Stone and James Matthews discuss why the swearing-in ceremony has been moved inside, and what we can expect from his speech.

The trio will also talk about how his inauguration will compare to his first time around in 2017.

Plus, Mr Trump has said mass deportation will begin on day one of his presidency. The team discuss what this means as Martha heads to Chicago, the city described by Team Trump as “ground zero” for mass deportations.

Trump 100 marks Sky’s first podcast launch of 2025, and will be available through to Mr Trump’s 100th day in the White House on 29 April.

Each 15-minute show will be released daily at 6am on all podcast platforms, and will feature an extended weekend edition published every Saturday.