Trump's Trials - What to expect today as Trump takes the oath of office for a second time

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

President-elect Trump will get sworn in today for his second term in the White House. We preview what we know about the day.Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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January wherever you get your podcasts for the tools you need to pull it off from NPR. I'm Leila Faldon. And I'm Amay Martinez. President-elect Donald Trump will get sworn in today for his second term in the White House. Now, he's a president who has proved unconventional. At a rally last night, he promised quite a show on his first day in office. Oh, you're gonna have a lot of fun watching television. But his inauguration will be a little pared down.

It had to be moved into the rotunda because of the below freezing weather in Washington, D.C. And the hundreds of thousands of people who showed up to see him in person will have to squeeze into the Capital One arena instead. Danielle Kurtz-Slaven is covering the inauguration. That includes Trump's pre-inaugural rally yesterday. So Danielle, yeah, I mean the high today is supposed to be what, 25, 26 at most? Yep. Yeah, so can't blame them for what they're doing.

Can you tell us more about what to expect today? Yeah, well it's a full day of activities and I'll mention just some of them. Midday, there's that official swearing in ceremony. And again, like you said, it's in the Capitol because it's chilly outside today here in Washington. Many supporters, however, will be watching that live stream in Capitol One Arena downtown, again, because of the cold. Then after that, Trump has a ceremony midday that could involve signing executive orders. And then in the afternoon, the inaugural parade has also been moved to the arena, which is where last night's rally was also held. So

all that time spent cheering in an arena, it's really gonna maybe fittingly feel like a lot of time at a traditional Trump rally. Yeah, Trump previewed some of those day one actions during that rally last night at the Capital One Arena. What else did he say that stood out to you? Well, there is very much this pervasive feeling that the underdogs had won. That's definitely the story that a lot of speakers told, at least. It was celebratory, but also in very Trumpian fashion, there was a lot of focus on how the

MAGA movement has a lot of enemies, as they said, and needs to keep fighting them. And supporters outside told me that this win just feels bigger right now than the win in 2016 because they think they have more of America behind them. This time, after all, Trump did win the popular vote, unlike in 2016. Now here is Cindy Pugh. I spoke with her as she stood in line. She came to DC from her home in the Minneapolis suburbs. This win reflects a compelling call to action by the American people to act on our behalf, to

not be beholden to the political establishment. So it does feel different to me. Now inside the rally there were a lot of people besides Trump, so were there any other speakers who made a mark? Yeah, quite a few. I mean, there was billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk. He gave an impromptu speech. Political commentator Megyn Kelly really stood out. She gave this very harsh speech that insulted Democrats and their famous supporters. She insulted Vice President Kamala Harris herself. And besides all of that, in his speech, Trump called out cabinet members he's picked. The crowd had big cheers, especially for Pete Hegseth, who is the defense nominee, who was questioned at his hearing recently about allegations of drinking in the job and

sexual misconduct. Hegseth has denied all of those. Now, Trump last night spoke about many of his priorities, including border security and boosting US production of energy. So what else are we expecting from him today? And also in the coming days as he comes back from the White House? Well, he's talked about doing a lot of executive orders. For example, he talked about carrying out mass deportations and he also talked about pardoning people convicted of their actions during the January 6 riot four years ago. All right, that's NPR's Danielle Chris-Lavin. Thanks a lot, Danielle. Thank you. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the incoming Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast,

where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.