Trump Inauguration live updates: Incoming president vows to release bombshell JFK’s assassination files within days of taking office

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

The crowd at Donald Trump’s rally went absolutely wild when he announced that the documents on John F. Kennedy’s assassination will be made public within the first days of his administration.

‘As a first step toward restoring transparency and accountability to government, we will also reverse the overclassification of government documents,’ Trump vowed at his pre-inauguration rally on Sunday.

He continued: ‘And in the coming days we’re going to make public remaining records relating to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other topics of great public interest. It’s all going to be released.’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services, pushed for him to pledge to make these documents public – especially those related to his uncle and father.

‘Well, we are on the eve of an authoritarian administration’ she said. ‘This is what 21st century fascism is starting to look like.’

Liberals fearful of Donald Trump‘s return to the White House are furiously stockpiling essentials and more unusual items including Plan B and machetes.

Now that Democrats have been swept out of power, liberals are expressing their own fears about a GOP trifecta with Trump at the very top. Possible efforts to further roll back things like abortion and contraception are at the top of their minds.

An attorney who helped to prosecute the January 6 rioters has told NBC he has no regrets ahead of Trump’s triumphant return to office.

He said he went ahead with the cases despite knowing there was a chance Trump could one day return to office.

“It was always recognized that Trump might return to power and pardon the Capitol Riot defendants. And we all pressed ahead anyway. We did so because political considerations should not play any part in the Justice Department’s evaluation of facts and law, which showed that these were crimes — some of them terribly serious crimes — that warranted prosecution,” the attorney said.

“If there are mass pardons, we can talk then about how I feel about it. But I expect my answer, and that of pretty much all my colleagues too, is that I have no regrets about having pursued these cases. I fully believe that the effort remains highly consequential,” the attorney added.

During his speech, Biden commended himself for issuing more commutations and and individual pardons than ‘any other president in American history.’

He also claimed he tried to ‘end the federal death penalty’ by reducing many of the Death Row inmates’ sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The outgoing and incoming Presidents will spend Monday morning together ahead of the inauguration.

At 9.40am, the Bidens will welcome Donald and Melania for a tea and coffee reception at the White House.

At 10.25am, the two couples will travel to the Capitol for the inauguration together.

This marks another change from the last inauguration, which Trump famously skipped.

Pope Francis has slammed Trump’s promise to rid America of illegal immigrants once he takes office.

“If it is true, it will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing to pay the unpaid bill. It won’t do. This is not the way to solve things,” Francis told local media.

Joe Biden will write a letter for Donald Trump to open when he returns to the White House as 47th President of the United States.

It is a tradition that Trump himself upheld when he handed over the reins to Biden four years ago, despite refusing to attend the inauguration.

According to CNN, Trump was so ‘fascinated’ by a letter that Barack Obama had left for him when he took office, that he decided to continue the tradition when he left.

Trump was reportedly ‘touched’ by Obama’s private words and tried to reach out to him the same day. The pair have been in the spotlight this month after appearing friendly with one another at Jimmy Carter’s funeral.

Trump has repeatedly mocked and slammed Biden during his election campaign and even slammed the Biden administration on Sunday afternoon.

Biden previously said the letter Trump left for him was ‘very generous’ but refused to offer more details.

Nelly has responded to the backlash over his decision to perform at the Liberty Ball on Monday night, celebrating the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

The rapper, 50, who along with Snoop Dogg has agreed to take part in the inaugural festivities, explained his reasons for accepting the invitation to right-wing journalist  Officer Lew on X.

‘I’m not doing this for money, I’m doing this ’cause it’s an honor. I respect the office.’ the Grillz artist explained. ‘It don’t matter who in office.’

Trump made a promise to the American public that they’ve made the right choice in re-electing him as President.

‘The American people have given us their trust, and in return, we’re going to give them the best first day, the biggest first week, and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history,’ he told the raucous crowd on Sunday.

Biden and his wife Jill will travel to Santa Ynez, California on Monday after attending Trump’s inauguration, the White House revealed on Sunday.

They will depart the Capitol after the ceremony and attend a farewell event with former staffers at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington before boarding an Air Force plane for the trip.

The Bidens previously vacationed in Santa Ynez over the summer after Biden ended his bid for reelection.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump confirms he is going to southern California on Friday to survey wildfire damage.

Multiple first broke out across Los Angeles and its surrounding areas this month, leaving at least 27 confirmed dead and at least hundreds of millions in damages.

Trump is making sure to head west early on in his second term, vowing at his rally on Sunday to visit Los Angeles just four days after his inauguration – amid his plans to enact 200 executive actions on Day One.

The president-elect has blamed Democratic lawmakers in California and their water-saving and environmental policies for the fires raging on for over one week.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Elon Musk came on stage with his enthusiastic son X Æ A-12 (pronounced ex-ash-ay–twelve) to tout the extreme changes he plans to make to the federal government.

The billionaire is helping overhaul the government to reduce spending and waste.

Musk’s young son was enthusiastic to be on stage, jumping around and waving his arms as his father delivered short, stuttered remarks.

‘We’ve got to be protective of our geniuses because we don’t have too many,’ Trump said as Musk walked offstage.

Trump said at his inauguration eve rally on Sunday: ‘As of today, TikTok is back.’

We won on TikTok, and Republicans have never won the young vote, the youth vote. So I like TikTok.

I said we need to save TikTok because we’re talking about a tremendous… who in this audience goes with TikTok? Many? Yeah, it’s very popular. And frankly, we have no choice, we have to save it.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump celebrated the release of the first hotages from Gaza after a ceasefire deal was reached in the days before his inauguration.

The president-elect shrugged it off when he mentioned how President Joe Biden tried to take credit for the deal reached between Israel and Hamas terrorists operating out of Gaza.

Trump took credit for the deal that is seeing hotages finally released after their capture in October 2022, claiming he’s acheived more before taking office than Biden accomplished in four years as president.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to sign more than 200 executive orders on Monday – his first day back in office after four years.

Fox News reported Sunday that the executive orders will focus on border security, energy, cost of living reductions and ending DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – programs throughout the federal government.

Trump will start his ‘retribution’ tour by attempting to yank the security clearances from the 51 intelligence officials who said in 2020 that Hunter Biden’s laptop was likely a Russian disinformation campaign.

The incoming president will also try to rename the Gulf of Mexico – to the Gulf of America – and establish biological sex definitions after Republicans went after transgender Americans during the 2024 campaign cycle.

During the rally, he mentioned the aggressive number of executive orders planned.

Somebody said yesterday, “Sir, don’t sign so many [executive orders] in one day… let’s do it over a period of weeks.” I said, “Like hell we’re going to do it over weeks, we’re going to sign them at the beginning.”

We’ll have plenty to sign in the future, don’t worry about it. it’s not going to stop.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump took the stage at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. for his final rally before being sworn in as president for the second time.

He walked out to a live performance of God Bless the U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood.

‘We won!’ Trump triumphantly declared when on stage.

However, the upper deck of the arena was only half-filled, with thousands claiming they were not let into the venue because of security cut-offs.

He took the stage as Fox News reported he is expected to sign more than 200 executive orders on Monday – his first day back in office after four years.

The unprecedented number of executive orders will focus on border security, energy, cost of living reductions and ending DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – programs throughout the federal government.

Joining Trump for his election victory lap with less than 20 hours to go until his inauguration, was his trusted ‘first buddy’ Elon Musk and his toddler son X.

Musk promised to shake up the federal bureaucracy with his new DOGE agency saying ‘we will do great things here.’

This victory is the start really. What matters going forward is to actually make significant changes.

Cement those changes and set the foundation for America to be strong for a century, for centuries, forever.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

Kai Trump, the 17-year-old granddaughter of President-elect Donald Trump, made very brief remarks during Sunday night’s victory rally at the Capital One Arena.

‘Thank you for all the support of the past decade and we’re looking forward to the next four years. And God bless America. Thank you,’ Kai said, briefly taking over the podium from her father, Donald Trump Jr.

Kai made her political debut at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, informing her father that she wanted to address the audience on the heels of the assassination attempt on the president-elect in Butler, Pennsylvania.

‘So I called my dad, I said, “Listen, she wants to do this,”‘ Trump Jr. recalled onstage Sunday. ‘And he goes, “Woah, that’s a big one.” And he said, “You know what that kid is an absolute winner, let her do it,”‘ the younger Trump said.

Kai is a star golfer and provided a behind-the-scenes look at life in the Trump family to a large social media following especially after her RNC speech.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump’s two oldest sons Don Jr. and Eric, along with his wife Lara, came out on stage with some of their kids on Sunday.

Eric and Lara’s two young children, Carolina and Luke, wanted to recite the Pledge of Allegience for the crowd, which Eric says they do every night.

Lara served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee starting in March through the 2024 presidential election.

Don Jr., meanwhile, joined by his oldest kid Kai, 17, after she became much more involved with the campaign over the summer when she spoke at the Republican National Convention.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

Jon Voight – one of the most prominent Republicans in Hollywood – helped warm up the crowd Sunday at President-elect Donald Trump’s victory rally at the Capital One Arena.

‘I’m proud to call the president of the United States my friend, our friend, my hero, our hero’ Voight said. ‘A man who never gave up on the American people. And we the people never gave up on him.’

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Incoming first lady Melania Trump is selling a meme of herself.

The meme is a black-and-white photo of a smiling Melania, her hands in prayer position in front of her face.

She is selling it as part of her NFT business and is for purchase with crypto currency.

‘Melania memes are digital collectibles intended to function as an expression of support for and engagement with the values embodied by the symbol MELANIA,’ her website says.

Kid Rock was the first opening musical act at President-elect Donald Trump’s victory rally on Sunday at the Capital One Arena.

The country rocker performed four songs – including his 2022 We The People – which includes the lyrics ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ code for ‘f*** Joe Biden.’

‘Welcome to the Make America Great Again victory rally. Do you feel good?’ he asked the crowd welcoming them to Washington, D.C. ‘I have one question for you – is MAGA in the house tonight?’

Trump’s voice also piped over the rally crowd.

‘I know you’re having a great time at the Kid Rock concert tonight,’ Trump said, adding, ‘Let’s make America rock again.’

President Joe Biden urged despondent fellow Democrats not to give up hope as he attended Sunday services with South Carolina’s Black churchgoing community to mark the final full day of his presidency.

Biden leaves office on Monday, ending a four-year term that leaves his Democratic Party in the political wilderness when he hands the office back to Republican rival Donald Trump, whom Democrats consider a threat to democracy.

At the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, Biden was remembered fondly by political allies and received a standing ovation from church attendees.

‘We often reflect on resurrection and redemption, but remember, Jesus was buried on Friday, and he rose on Sunday,’ Biden told churchgoers.

‘We don’t talk enough about Saturday, when his disciples felt all hope was lost.’

Trump aide Margo Martin shared a behind-the-scenes look at President Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery.

The ongoing TikTok drama is a key backdrop of the festivities surrounding the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Monday.

The platform shut down for users in the United States on Saturday evening, thanks to a ban signed by President Joe Biden.

Trump vowed Sunday morning that he would soon sign an executive order that would permit the platform to go live again as negotiation about the ownership of the app continue.

Trump consultant ‘TikTok Jack’ spoke with DailyMail.com about his optimism surrounding the president-elects negotiations around the deal.

U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Sunday, one day before the inauguration.

Vance and Han discussed an array of topics including fentanyl, balancing trade and regional stability, the Trump-Vance transition team said.

Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the inauguration after winning the presidential election. Xi has sent Han in his place.

President-elect Donald Trump plans to speak about a new Golden Age of the United States of America on Monday during his Inauguration address.

Incoming press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed the address on Fox News on Sunday.

‘You’re going to hear President Trump talk about how we are entering a golden age of America and how Americans’ hope can be restored in this great nation,’ she said.

Trump will also talk about securing the border, boosting the United States economy and taking executive actions within 24 hours to ease the problems facing the American people.

‘I think after hearing his speech tomorrow, Americans are going to feel a renewed sense of hope and optimism, and you’re already feeling that in this city throughout this weekend,’ she said.

President-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Sunday afternoon, prior to the Inauguration on Monday.

The pair stood solemnly as president-elect Trump saluted and military taps were played according to video posted by Trump aide Margo Martin.

Earlier in the day, Trump and Vance participated in a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery with family members.

The president-elect is holding a victory rally later today in Washington, DC at Capitol One arena.

Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Thousands lined up in the cold rain on Sunday for their chance to see Donald Trump in person one more time before he becomes president again.

MAGA supporters traveled from all over the country to Washington, D.C. for Trump’s second inauguration and the festivities surrounding his swearing-in.

Trump is holding his final rally in the District’s Chinatown at Capital One Arena, where the professional hockey team the Washington Capitals and professional basketball team the Washington Wizards play.

The arena has a capacity of more than 20,000.

On the eve of Donald J Trump’s inauguration, America’s incoming first lady is making one thing perfectly clear: She won’t settle for a minor credit in this presidential sequel.

Melania, in fact, appears determined to produce and direct her own starring role.

On Thursday, the notoriously private 57-year-old former model was pictured meeting with Queen Rania of Jordan at the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

The longtime friends reunited as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was signed – the agreement negotiated, in part, by the president-elect’s new regional envoy.

The photo, posted to the Queen’s Instagram, showed the two having coffee, and locked in deep conversation. One wonders if a documentary film crew, which has been trailing Melania since November, was able to capture the substance of their chat.

For the first time in U.S. history, a president-elect will welcome foreign leaders for one of the most American political traditions – the peaceful transfer of power.

President-elect Donald Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and conservative world leaders such as Argentine President Javier Milei and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni to the inauguration. Xi is sending his vice president as his representative.

No heads of state have previously made an official visit to the U.S. for the inauguration.

She will make the place feel just like home as she intends to have the residence look just like it did when they left it.

‘A little bit of changes. Not much,’ she told Fox News about her plans.

All first families place their mark on the White House – particularly the upper floors where they live – and Melania was no exception.

In her memoir, she wrote that she focused on ‘redecorating a dozen rooms in the private residence, as the existing style was outdated and not to my taste.’ She even designed a new rug for one of the main family rooms.

Homan, former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Washington Post that the new administration ‘hasn’t made a decision yet.’

‘We’re looking at this leak and will make a decision based on this leak,’ Homan said. ‘It’s unfortunate because anyone leaking law enforcement operations puts officers at great risk.’

The president-elect will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

It will be his first visit back to the cemetery since his visit last summer where one his staffers clashed with an Arlington official.

Trump visited the cemetery to mark three years since the Abbey Gate terror attack as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan.

During the visit there was a reported physical altercation involving a Trump campaign staffer and a worker in the cemetery when the campaign took photos and video in a restricted area of the cemetery.

The Trump campaign denied a staffer pushed a cemetery worker while the Army defended the staffer.

Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei was among the stacked line-up of Hispanics who joined the pre-celebration of Donald Trump’s impending inauguration.

Milei is a friend of Trump’s and was the first world leader to accept an invitation to his second swearing-in.

But just two days before the inauguration, approximately 1,500 mostly Latino American guests gathered in a ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel as hundreds of thousands of people flood the District for the highly-anticipated inaugural balls this weekend.

The Hispanic gala underscores the importance of the Latino American vote in the 2024 presidential election and how vital the rightward trend of that voting demographic was toward Trump winning his second reelection bid.

Trump earned a higher percentage of Latino votes in 2024 than any other Republican presidential candidate before him.

Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra described the first lady as ‘Lady McBiden,’ comparing her to Lady MacBeth, the evil wife controlling her husband’s kingdom from behind the scenes in the legendary Shakespeare play.

President-elect Donald Trump urged TikTok users to be patient, using companies to allow the app to stay up after the deadline passed on the ban passed by Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden.

Trump promised to issue an executive order to free up the platform on Monday after he was inaugurated as president of the United States.

He promised to extend the deadline for prohibitions on the platform as negotiations around the platform continue.

‘Americans deserve to see our exciting Inauguration on Monday, as well as other events and conversations,’ he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump indicated he preferred TikTok to allow the United States to have a 50 percent ownership position as part of a joint venture with the Chinese company ByteDance.

‘ By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to say up,’ he wrote. ‘Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok.’

TikTok officially went dark for users in the United States on on Saturday evening.

The majority of Americans says they would be unhappy if Donald Trump pardons January 6 rioters charged with crimes, according to an exclsuive DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll.

There have been over 1,500 people charged with federal crimes stemming from the historic protest which saw hordes of MAGA fans takeover Capitol Hill.

Over 1,000 defendants have been charged or pleaded guilty to a range of crimes from trespassing to seditious conspiracy.

Many Americans witnessed the event live on TV, from which they could see violence against authorities, vandalism against the historic Capitol building and other general anarchy light up their screens.

President-elect Donald Trump, however, is dead-set on addressing pardons for January 6 criminals on ‘Day One,’ which comes on Monday January 20, 2025.

‘Most likely, I’ll do it very quickly,’ he said of the pardons in a recent interview with NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’

Ahead of Donald Trump’s highly-anticipated inauguration, the soon-to-be Vice President, JD Vance and his wife, Usha, hosted an exclusive, glitzy bash that saw several MAGA legends in attendance.

The star-studded Cabinet Reception and Vice President’s Dinner saw the former Ohio senator and his wife dressed to the nines at the glamourous event set in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, on Saturday night.

The Vice President-elect and his dolled-up wife were even spotted sharing a loving kiss before the he delivered a moving speech to the famous crowd.

Donald Trump has promised that the biggest mass deportation in the history of America will begin on day one of his presidency, and voters say it can’t come soon enough.

When 1,009 registered voters were asked for their one-word verdict, the most popular answer was: Good.

The results come in the latest J.L. Partners poll for DailyMail.com, just ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

It found that voters overwhelmingly believe tackling illegal immigration and deportations should be Trump’s priority on day one.

Starting mass deportations was seen as most important by 23 percent of respondents.

Next came sealing a peace deal with Ukraine, cited by seven percent, and removing tax on tips (one of Trump’s most eye-catching campaign promises), on six percent.

James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners, said the unity was striking.

‘Right now, America is more united than it ever has been on mass deportations,’ he said.

It is the one question that unites Americans when it comes to President Joe Biden.

Ask Democrats, Republicans or independents for their one-word summary of his legacy and they put aside their differences to answer almost unanimously: Nothing.

Those are the extraordinary results of an exclusive poll conducted for DailyMail.com by J.L. Partners.

Some 1,009 registered voters were asked for their brief description of the legacy of Biden, who leaves the White House on Monday at the age of 82 after four turbulent years.

When the results are arranged in a word cloud, the most common answer sticks out at the center. The next most popular answers are economy, inflation, and infrastructure, in a more encouraging nod to one of his landmark pieces of legislation.

Yet the same word, ‘nothing’ stands out when the responses are split by political persuasion.

For Democrats, the memory is softened by other words such as ‘good,’ ‘stability,’ and ‘better.’

Donald Trump and wife Melania were all smiles as they watched a fireworks display at one of the many celebrations being held in the Washington, D.C., area ahead of the inauguration.

Trump marked his return to power with a celebration at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, about 30 miles outside Washington.

In addition to the First Couple, many of the major players in the Trump orbit were in attendance, including daughter and former senior advisor Ivanka, who was alongside her husband, Jared Kushner.

All of Trump’s adult children and their partners were in attendance, with Don Jr. joined by his controversial new beau Bettina Anderson, while Tiffany was there with husband Michael Boulos, as well as Eric and wife Lara.

But all eyes were on Donald and Melania, who flashed rare smiles at each other as they watched the display.