President-elect Donald Trump’s historic second term begins at noon Monday and is expected to launch with a blizzard of executive actions he promised will steer America out of the doldrums and danger of the Biden years and into an era of economic prosperity, safety and sanity.
Mr. Trump met with thousands of supporters Sunday in Washington for a final rally ahead of his return to the first nonconsecutive second term since Grover Cleveland in 1893.
Mr. Trump celebrated his November comeback win with a jubilant crowd and previewed what’s to come starting as soon as he takes the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda.
“We begin a brand new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride, bringing it all back once and For all,” he told the rally. “We’re going to end the reign of a failed and corrupt political establishment in Washington, a failed administration. We’re not going to take it anymore.”
Mr. Trump will sign executive actions before he leaves the Capitol and sign more presidential edicts later when he stops by Capital One Arena in the afternoon.
That’s where he will meet with supporters from around the country for his swearing-in and watch the inaugural parade. All inaugural activities, including the oath of office and parade, were diverted inside because of expected frigid temperatures.
Mr. Trump plans to sign more than 100 executive actions on Monday. Many of them will be directed at stopping the flood of illegal immigration and deadly drugs that escalated dramatically during Mr. Biden’s term.
Curbing illegal immigration was a top Trump campaign promise, but he promised much, much more in his address to supporters on Sunday.
“Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country,” Mr. Trump promised the rally crowd.
Expect the new president to immediately declare a national emergency on the southern border and to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum-seekers, which Mr. Biden abandoned when he took office.
“By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt, and all the illegal border trespassers will in some form or another be on their way back home,” he pledged.
Other Day 1 actions will include removing the United States from the Paris Climate Accords, rescinding federal diversity, equity and inclusion policies and reversing Biden-era limits on offshore drilling.
Mr. Trump’s Day 1 moves are poised to be unprecedented. He hinted on Sunday that he will be mass pardoning many of those convicted, many with harsh sentences, in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol that his critics say he instigated.
Mr. Trump even promised to immediately release long-classified information about the assassinations of President Kennedy, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “and other topics of great public interest.”
His inauguration will be the first in 40 years held indoors.
Mr. Trump decided Friday to move the ceremony inside to spare supporters, law enforcement and other first responders from spending many hours outside in temperatures starting in the single digits Tuesday.
The move indoors also makes it easier for law enforcement and the Secret Service to protect large crowds and the incoming president, who survived two assassination attempts.
It also means thousands of supporters who planned to watch Mr. Trump take the oath in person from the West Front of the Capitol will have to settle with watching it all on TV or online.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump promised them all an exciting show.
“Oh, you’re going to have a lot of fun watching television,” he told the crowd at Capitol One Arena.
“Every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take office.”
Mr. Trump told the crowd he was racking up wins even before setting foot in the White House. He took credit for a surging stock market and for getting TikTok back online Sunday after it was taken down briefly over a pending deadline to rid China of any ownership. He claimed victory for the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that led to the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas for more than a year.
Mr. Biden announced the deal, which was negotiated with the help of Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East.
“Our incoming administration has achieved all of this in the Middle East in less than three months without being president,” he said. “We’ve achieved more without being president than they’ve achieved in four years with being president. “But just imagine all of the good things that we will accomplish together with four more years in the White House, and we’re going to do a lot of things.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.