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What’s on agenda today?

Church service

Meeting with Bidens

Swearing of Vice President JD Vance

Swearing in of Trump

Inaugural speech

Departure of outgoing President Joe Biden

Signing room ceremony – Here Trump will sign his first executive orders as President.

Inaugural lunch – This will include food from the home states of the new President and the Vice President

Event at Capitol One Arena

Inaugural balls

Senate panels likely to vote on cabinet nominations of Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth

Trump talks with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Usha Vance before a service at St. John's Church

 

S Jaishankar is carrying Modi's letter

Sources say that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is carrying a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for US President Donald Trump.

Jaishankar is representing PM Modi as his special envoy at President Trump's inaugural function on Monday.

The external affairs minister's presence at the presidential inauguration is in line with India's general practice of sending special envoys to attend the swearing-in ceremony of heads of state and government, sources said.

How Melania has prepared for White House re-entry

Reports say Trump’s wife Melania has been preparing to re-enter the White House by taking up an extensive study of foreign affairs and joining her husband for several dinners that he hosted at his Mar-a-Lago Club.

The to-be First Lady has reportedly admitted that the position comes with a lot of responsibility the magnitude of which she had not understood the first time around.

Trump kicks off Inauguration Day pageantry with morning church service

Donald Trump, who overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, will be sworn in Monday as the 47th US president taking charge as Republicans claim unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country's institutions.

Trump's swearing-in ceremony, moved indoors due to intense cold, will begin at noon ET. But festivities will start earlier when the incoming president arrives for service at St. John's Episcopal Church.

Here's the latest: 'We don't have to stand out here on the lawn to show our support' Pam Pollard, a former National Committeewoman from Oklahoma City, arrived in Washington nearly a week ago and said she was in line to sit in a reserved section at the inauguration before it was moved inside.

She agreed with the change because people could get so caught up in the moment that they might endanger themselves.

Pollard, 65, who was at the state convention and the Republican National Convention that formally nominated Trump to be the party's candidate, suggested people break up into watch parties.

“We all believe God's hand has been on this man to be elected,” she said. “We don't have to stand out here on the lawn to show our support, our unity.” German chancellor stresses the importance of trans-Atlantic relations “Trans-Atlantic relations are of the utmost importance for Germany and for Europe,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Rheinische Post. “And NATO is the guarantor of our security. That is why we need stable relations with the USA.” Scholz's comments came hours before Trump's inauguration.

The German chancellor also said that “as the European Union, we can also build on our own strength. As a community of more than 400 million Europeans, we have economic weight.” He said he had already talked to Trump on the phone twice without elaborating when the calls took place.

This is the 'trip of a lifetime' Vince Filippone, 71, and his wife, Diane, 68, came to the inauguration from their central Florida home — a gift from their sons, who joined them.

Filippone quipped he hadn't worn a heavy coat in years as they braved the frigid temperatures.

They rode the Washington Metro subway into the district's downtown area and joined the thousands of people who began lining up before sunrise to get into the viewing arena where Trump's victory celebration was held Sunday.

Far beyond being disappointed, the cancer survivor said he was “past excited. This is the trip of a lifetime.” Foreign leaders descend upon Washington for Inauguration Day Trump may be breaking a tradition on Inauguration Day. No heads of state have previously made an official visit to the US for the inauguration.

It's not clear whether foreign leaders will attend the swearing-in ceremony or other events related such as inaugural balls.

Argentina's President Javier Milei and Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni have spoken about being invited. The offices of Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa and Paraguayan President Santiago Pena have also said they were invited and were planning to attend. The Salvadoran ambassador to the US said there had been an invitation to the country's President Nayib Bukele, but he is not likely to attend.

Last month, Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, had been invited. Jinping is unlikely to attend and it's not clear whether he would send another official.

Moving day madness The “transfer of families” is a frenetic Inauguration Day ritual of approximately five hours where the White House is turned over from the outgoing presidential family to the incoming one.

In that time, while the outgoing and incoming presidents are together for the inaugural ceremony — White House residence staff hustle to inventory belongings, pack and move out one family and prepare the residence for its new occupants.

The process wasn't always so efficient, though.

After the disputed election of 1876, outgoing President Ulysses S. Grant suggested that his successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, take the oath of office two days early to prevent potential unrest.

Hayes did that but then took a second oath as scheduled. Grant, though, didn't actually vacate the White House until after Haye's second swearing-in.

Trump will get ahold of an old X account The White House's official X account, and its 37 million followers, will shift around midday from Joe Biden to Donald Trump.

Biden issues preemptive pardons

Ahead of Trump's inauguration, President Biden issued preemptive pardons for General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the January 6 committee. 

Trump’s family including daughter Ivanka and son Eric arrives at Church

Crypto gets a massive boost

The bitcoin-friendly administration of President-elect Donald Trump and an expanding lobbying effort in statehouses could push states to become more open to crypto and lead public pension funds and treasuries to buy into it.

Proponents of the uniquely volatile commodity argue it is a valuable hedge against inflation, similar to gold.

Many bitcoin enthusiasts and investors are quick to say government-backed currencies are prone to devaluation and increased government buy-ins will stabilize future price swings, giving them more legitimacy and boosting already rising prices.

But the risks are significant. Critics say crypto investments are highly speculative, with so much unknown about projecting future returns. They warn that investors should be prepared to lose money.

Only a couple of public pension funds have invested in cryptocurrency. A US Government Accountability Office study on 401(k) plan investments in crypto, issued late last year, warned it has “uniquely high volatility.” It found no standard approach for projecting the future returns of crypto.

2024 was a landmark year for crypto, with bitcoin surpassing $100,000. The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin. Now, crypto enthusiasts are banking on Trump's promise to make the United States the “bitcoin superpower” of the world.

Lawmakers in more states can expect to see bills this year to make them crypto-friendly. Analysts say crypto is becoming a powerful lobby. Bitcoin miners are building new installations and venture capitalists are underwriting a growing tech sector that caters to cryptocurrencies.

Meanwhile, a new crypto-friendly federal government under Trump and Congress could consider legislation from Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, to create a federal bitcoin reserve on which states can piggyback.

A bill introduced in November in Pennsylvania's House of Representatives sought to authorize the state's treasurer and public pension funds to invest in bitcoin. It went nowhere before the legislative session ended, but it caused a stir.

“I had a friend who is a rep down the road text me, Oh my god, I'm getting so many emails and phone calls to my office,' more than he ever did about any other bill,” said the measure's sponsor, Republican Mike Cabell.

A bitcoin enthusiast who lost his reelection bid, Cabell expects a colleague to reintroduce his bill. Leaders of bitcoin advocacy group Satoshi Action say they expect legislation based on their model bill to be introduced in at least 10 other states this year.

But what about public pension funds? Keith Brainard, research director for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, said he doesn't expect many public pension fund investment professionals, who oversee nearly $6 trillion in assets, to invest in crypto.

Pension fund professionals take risks they deem to be appropriate, but bitcoin investing has a short track record, might only fit into a niche asset class and may not fit the risk-to-reward profile they seek.

“There might be a bit of dabbling in bitcoin,” Brainard said. “But it's difficult to envision a scenario in which pension funds right now are willing to make a commitment.” Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming helped make the state the first to introduce a system allowing people to pay a government agency in cryptocurrencies.

Fleming said he's not trying to promote cryptocurrency, but rather views it as a recognition that the government must innovate and be flexible about helping people do business with the state. He said he would never invest his money, or the state's, in crypto.

“My concern is that at some point it'll stop growing and then people will want to cash in,” Fleming said. “And when they do, it could tank the value of a bitcoin.” In Pennsylvania, Treasury Department officials said they have the authority to decide for themselves if cryptocurrencies meet the agency's investment standards under state law and don't need new legislation.

Still, a highly volatile asset is ill-suited to the agency's need for predictability, considering it writes millions of checks a year. The overwhelming majority of the roughly $60 billion it invests at any given time is in short-term, conservative investments designed for an investment period of months, officials there said.

Pension boards, which invest on a 30-year time horizon, may already hold small investments in companies involved in mining, trading and storing cryptocurrencies. But they have been slow to embrace bitcoin.

That could change, said Mark Palmer, managing director and a senior research analyst at The Benchmark Company in New York.

Pension boards got investment tools they like last year when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first exchange-traded funds that hold bitcoin. In October, it approved listings of options on those funds, Palmer said.

Many “are likely in the process of getting up to speed on what it means to invest in bitcoin and kicking the tires, so to speak, and that's a process that typically takes a while at the institutional level,” Palmer said.

Several major asset managers like BlackRock, Invesco and Fidelity have bitcoin ETFs.

Some states already are investing in crypto In May, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board became the first state to invest when it bought $160 million worth of shares in two ETFs, or about 0.1% of its assets. It later scaled back that investment to $104 million in one ETF, as of Sept. 30. A spokesperson declined to discuss it.

Michigan's state investment board reported about $18 million in bitcoin ETF purchases, while a candidate for New Jersey governor, Steven Fulop, said that if elected he would push the state's pension fund to invest in crypto.

Fulop, the Democratic mayor of Jersey City, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, has been preparing for months to buy bitcoin ETF shares for up to 2% of the city's $250 million employee pension fund.

“We were ahead of the curve," Fulop said. “And I think that's what you're eventually going to see is this is widely accepted, with regard to exposure in all pension funds, some sort of exposure.” 

AP

Pope Francis calls Trump's plans of mass deportation of immigrants 'disgrace'

Pope Francis said Donald Trump's plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants would be a “disgrace,” as he weighed in on the incoming US president's pledges nearly a decade after calling him “not Christian” for wanting to build a wall along the US-Mexican border.

History's first Latin American pope was asked about the Trump administration pledges of deportations during an appearance Sunday night on a popular Italian talk show, Che Tempo Che Fa.

“If true, this will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill” for the problem, Francis said. “This won't do! This is not the way to solve things. That's not how things are resolved.”

Trump, who is being sworn in on Monday, made mass deportations a signature issue of his campaign and has promised a raft of first-day orders to remake immigration policy.

During his first campaign for the presidency, in 2016, Francis was asked about Trump's plans to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Speaking after he celebrated Mass along the border, Francis famously said anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants is “not Christian.”

Many US bishops have firmly opposed Trump's deportation plan, with the incoming archbishop of Washington DC, Cardinal Robert McElroy, saying such policies were “incompatible with Catholic doctrine.” It was a reference to the Biblical call to “welcome the stranger.”