Trump’s swearing-in will move inside the Capitol Rotunda because of intense cold weather

Member of the U.S. military parade as they rehearse at the U.S. Capitol ahead of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's upcoming inauguration, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office from inside the Capitol Rotunda on Monday due to forecasts of intense cold weather, upending months of meticulous planning for a massive outdoor event with crowds sprawling down the National Mall.

“The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way.”

The Rotunda is prepared as an alternative for each inauguration in the event of inclement weather. The swearing-in was last moved indoors in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan began his second term. Monday’s forecast calls for the lowest Inauguration Day temperatures since that day.

Outgoing President Joe Biden, members of Congress and some other dignitaries and notable guests will be able to view the ceremony from inside the Capitol Rotunda. But even if they are standing shoulder-to-shoulder packing the Rotunda as in 1985, many will be forced to watch the swearing-in from elsewhere.

Alternate plans were being devised to accommodate as many guests as possible. More than 250,000 guests are ticketed to view the inauguration from around the Capitol grounds and tens of thousands more were expected to be in general admission areas or to line the inaugural parade route from the Capitol to the White House.

Trump said some supporters would be able to watch the ceremony from Washington’s Capital One Arena on Monday, a day after he plans to hold a rally there. He said he would visit the arena, which has a capacity of about 20,000, after his swearing-in, and host a modified inaugural parade there.

Trump said other inaugural events, including the Sunday rally and his participation in three official inaugural balls on Monday night, would take place as scheduled.

The U.S. Secret Service, which leads the security planning for the inauguration, said it was working with organizers to “adapt” its plans for the event due to the scheduling changes.

The National Weather Service is predicting the temperature to be around 22 degrees (minus-6 Celsius) at noon during the swearing-in, the coldest since Reagan’s second inauguration saw temperatures plunge to 7 degrees (minus-14 Celsius). Barack Obama’s 2009 swearing-in was 28 degrees (minus-2 Celsius).

“The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies will honor the request of the President-elect and his Presidential Inaugural Committee to move the 60th Inaugural Ceremonies inside the U.S. Capitol to the Rotunda,” a spokesperson said Friday.

The Capitol Rotunda was one of the areas breached during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by supporters of Trump trying to block the certification of his 2020 defeat to Biden. The temporary inaugural platform, where Trump was to have been sworn-in outdoors, was the site of some of the most violent clashes between rioters and police officers trying to protect the Capitol complex.

Earlier Friday, Trump’s inaugural committee announced that, like his first inauguration, Trump would take the oath of office on a family Bible given to him by his mother as well as the Bible used by President Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861. Vice President-elect JD Vance will be sworn in on a family Bible given to him by his maternal great-grandmother.

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By Zeke Miller

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AP writers Seth Borenstein, Michelle Price and Farnoush Amiri contributed from Washington.