On the eve of his return to the White House, President-elect Donald Trump promised to sign a blitz of executive orders on his first day as president, telling supporters that he would move with “historic speed and strength” in the hours after taking the oath of office.
Addressing a racuous crowd of thousands in a Washington DC arena for a “Victory Rally”, Trump offered a preview of the next four years and celebrated his November election victory over the Democrats.
The Republican promised to act unilaterally on a wide array of issues, using his presidential powers to launch mass deportation operations, slash environmental regulations and end diversity programmes.
“We put America first and it all starts tomorrow,” he told the crowd at the campaign-style event, adding: “You’re going to have a lot of fun watching television tomorrow.”
Trump is expected to sign more than 200 executive actions on Monday. This would include executive orders, which are legally-binding, and other presidential directives like proclamations, which are usually not.
“Every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office,” the incoming president said.
Trump promised executive orders that would ramp up artificial intelligence programmes, form the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), make records available related to the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963, direct the military to create an Iron Dome missile defence shield and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies from the military.
He also told supporters he would stop transgender women from competing in female sports categories and hand back control of education to America’s states.
“You’re going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy,” he told the crowd. “We have to set our country on the proper course.”
Presidents usually take executive action when they enter office but the volume of day one orders from Trump could dwarf his predecessors and many are expected to be challenged in court.
He promised that his executive blitz on Monday would target illegal immigration – an issue at the heart of the Republican’s winning campaign for the presidency.
But experts say his promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants will face enormous logistical hurdles, and potentially cost tens or hundreds of billions of dollars.
Trump is also expected to issue pardons for people convicted of taking part in the January 6 riots at the US Capitol in 2021 led by his supporters.
He referred to January 6 rioters as “hostages” and promised that everyone would be “very happy” with his decision on Monday.
The rally took place at the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington DC, which has a capacity of around 20,000.
It began with a performance by Kid Rock and featured speeches from TV personality Megyn Kelly, actor Jon Voight and Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller.
Elon Musk also gave a brief speech after Trump touted his creation of Doge, an advisory agency that the tech billionaire is set to run with Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who made a failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump’s family also joined him on stage, including sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric, and Eric’s wife Lara Trump.
Supports of the president-elect have flooded the nation’s capital this weekend despite bitterly cold temperatures and snow on Sunday.
Monday’s inauguration ceremony has been relocated indoors into the Rotunda of the US Capitol for the first time in 40 years due to the poor weather conditions, leaving thousands of people who had hoped to watch the ceremony along the National Mall disappointed.
The temperature is expected to be about -6C (22F) at noon local time, when the swearing-in takes place.
Supporters have instead been asked to watch the event from the Capitol One Arena, which will also host a version of the traditional outdoor parade.
Trump has said he will “join the crowd” there after taking the oath of office and delivering his inaugural address. The themes of his speech will reportedly be unity, strength and “fairness”.
Franklin Graham – the son of famous evangelist Billy Graham – will give the invocation during Monday’s inauguration ceremony.
“I think President Trump is a much different man than he was in 2017,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme. “I think God has strengthened him and he’s come through this a much stronger man and he’s going to be a much better president for all these hardships he’s gone through.”