US President-elect Donald Trump used one last rally on the eve of his inauguration to again celebrate his election victory, declaring “We won” to a crowd celebrating his return to the White House and projecting defiant optimism despite deep national political divisions.
“Tomorrow, at noon, the curtain closes on four long years of American decline, and we begin a brand-new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride,” Mr Trump told supporters, adding: “We not only won a mandate, but we built a new American majority that will lead our country to success for generations to come.”
Supporters filled most of the 20,000-plus-seat Capital One Arena to hear a performance by Kid Rock, who performed All Summer Long despite a cold mix of rain and snow falling outside.
Others taking the stage included singer Lee Greenwood, whose God Bless The USA was the anthem of Mr Trump’s re-election campaign.
Stephen Miller, Mr Trump’s pick to be deputy chief of staff and a key architect of the administration’s promised hard-line immigration policies, vowed that “justice is coming”.
“We are about to get our country back and our democracy back,” Mr Miller said, adding “Donald J Trump is about to save this country”.
Mr Trump, who has promised to sign a series of executive actions, including on US-Mexico border policy, was set to speak later in the evening.
Sunday gave the president-elect a chance to energise core supporters before the official pomp of Inauguration Day.
Mr Trump had breakfast privately with Republican senators at Blair House, the president’s official guest residence, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and later posed for a picture with the 10 Republican female senators and his incoming chief-of-staff, Susie Wiles.
Unlike when Mr Trump helped spark a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol and tried to retain power in 2021 after his loss to Democrat Joe Biden, officials did not expect massive protests, unrest or violence.
Instead, jubilant crowds celebrated Mr Trump’s second term and MAGA’s total control of the Republican Party.
Trump supporters filled parties at hotels and restaurants around Washington.
As they moved between the festivities, some could be heard chanting “MAGA” or simply stating it as a greeting to fellow revellers.
The atmosphere was a remarkable turnaround from four years ago, when Mr Trump left the nation’s capital in disgrace and skipped the inauguration of his successor.
Mr Trump blasted his way through the 2024 Republican presidential primary and won in November with an Electoral College margin unseen since Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012.
Yet even with that comfortable victory and his party in full – albeit narrow – control of Congress, the incoming president is one of the most polarising figures in US history, with nearly as many fierce detractors as ardent supporters.
That means it could be difficult for Mr Trump to fulfil post-election pledges to promote bipartisanship while healing political differences.
The president-elect has insisted that unity will be a theme of his inauguration speech on Monday, along with strength and fairness, but he also spent months as a candidate saying that if elected he would seek retribution against political enemies.
“Everybody, even those that initially opposed a Victory by President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Administration, just want it to happen.”
With frigid temperatures expected on Monday, Mr Trump directed most of Monday’s outdoor events to be moved indoors, and officials held a rehearsal on Sunday for his swearing-in in the US Capitol’s Rotunda, which holds only 600 people compared with the 250,000-plus guests who had tickets to view the inauguration from around the Capitol grounds.
In-between victory celebrations, Mr Trump took to his social media site to comment on the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the US ban on TikTok.
“Hostages starting to come out today! Three wonderful young women will be first,” Mr Trump wrote.
Overnight, millions of US users of TikTok lost the ability to watch videos on the social media platform as a federal ban on the app took effect.
Though the site later began flickering to life for some users, the disruptions reflected a new law requiring its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest for national security reasons.
The company made a personal appeal to Mr Trump to intervene, posting a message saying: “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office.”
He promised to issue an executive order on Monday “to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security”.
The president-elect also wrote that he was interested in the US owning 50% of TikTok in a “joint venture” model, though he did not offer much detail on what that would look like.
Incoming national security adviser Michael Waltz insisted that Mr Trump could find a solution by Monday.
“I think we should all be confident that he can craft that kind of a deal,” Mr Waltz told CBS’s Face The Nation.
He also noted that Mr Trump discussed TikTok on a weekend call with Chinese President Xi Jinping and they “agreed to work together on this”.
Mr Trump also headed to snow-covered graves at Arlington National Cemetery, where he and vice president-elect JD Vance – each wearing dark overcoats and red ties – walked together to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for a wreath-laying ceremony that included the playing of taps.
Mr Trump mouthed “thank you” after placing the wreath.
Mr Trump and Mr Vance later spent nearly half an hour in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, talking with families of three soldiers who died in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing, as well as a fourth whom they did not identify.
The scene was far different than in August, when two Trump campaign staff members reportedly verbally “abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60.
