Donald Trump held his last pre-office rally inside Washington’s Capital One Arena among a sea of roaring supporters on the eve of his inauguration day, speaking on topics ranging from TikTok to ending the war in Ukraine.
The event marked his first major address in Washington since his January 6, 2021, speech, that took place before an angry mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Notably, Donald Trump has said that he will pardon more than 1,500 of those charged or convicted in connection with the Capitol incident.
Trump’s immigration plans
As cheers resounded at the “Make America Great Again Victory Rally”, Trump said, “By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have come to a halt”.
Reiterating his pledge to launch the biggest deportation efforts in the history of the United States to remove millions of immigrants from the American soil, Trump said, “We’re going to stop the invasion of our borders”.
The Republican promised the crowd to “fix every single crisis” facing the nation.
He vowed to remove “every illegal alien gang member and migrant criminal operating on American soil”, saying that the control of US’ sovereign territory and borders will be quickly re-established.
Notably, a source familiar with Trump’s planning said the border security will be a major part of the President’s first executive orders after the inauguration, wherein he is likely to classify drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations”, a Reuters report said.
The report further mentioned that as President, Trump will declare an emergency at the US-Mexico border and will make a move towards reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy which forces non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their US court dates.
Historic speed in Oval office
Set to return to the Oval Office for a second term after beating Democrat Kamala Harris in the US presidential elections, Trump described the situation as the “greatest political movement in American history”, rejoicing the “most epic political victory” from 75 days ago.
“Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed of strength and fix every single crisis facing our country,” he said.
‘Will end’ Ukraine war, stop ‘Middle East chaos’
Taking the credit for the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Trump said that the agreement was a “first step toward lasting peace in the Middle East”, adding that this happened only as a result of his victory in the November elections.
“Biden said that they made the deal, well… First of all, it (the Israel-Hamas conflict) would have never happened if I were the President,” the Republican said.
Among the many promises Trump has made at his pre-inauguration rally, he included, “I will end the war in Ukraine, I will stop the chaos in the Middle East and I will prevent World War 3 from happening – and you have no idea how close we are.”
JFK, Kennedy assassination files to go public
Amid continued cheers and sloganeering, Donald Trump promised to reverse the “over-classification” of government documents, a seeming reference to his federal indictment for keeping classified papers after leaving the White House.
He vowed to release the classified documents related to the assassinations of former US President John F Kennedy, senator Robert Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, in the coming days.
He had promised during election campaigns to release classified intelligence and law enforcement papers on the 1963 assassination of JFK, popularly know as America’s 35th President.
Trump had made a similar promise during his last term and in fact, he even released some documents related to JFK. But, he ultimately had to give in to the pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Iron Dome in US
Donald Trump told the crowd at Capitol One that he will direct the American military to begin building an “Iron Dome” missile defense shield once he takes office as the President, saying that this dome will be made in the US.
The Republican had previously vowed to build a state-of-the-art missile defense “force field” around the US.
Need to save TikTok
Social media platform TikTok restored its services in the United States just a little while after Donald Trump promised to save the video sharing medium.
The app had briefly gone dark in the States after a law banning it over national security concerns came into effect on Sunday.
At his pre-inauguration rally, Trump said, “Frankly, we have no choice, we have to save it. A lot of jobs. We don’t want to give our business to China, we don’t want to give our business to other people.”
With this, the US allows for a 90-day delay of the ban if the White House can show progress towards a reasonable deal in which TikTok’s parent company ByteDance sells its US subsidiary to non-Chinese owners.
In its brief ban in the US, TikTok had also disappeared from the app stores of Apple and Google.
Additionally, Trump said that he also spoke with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who told him that the company is “going to make massive investments in the US because of our big election win”.
Trump’s attack at Biden govt
Trump said that on January 20, “the curtain closes our four long years of American decline and we begin a brand new day of American strength, prosperity, dignity and pride.”
“Once and for all, we’re going to end the reign of a failed and corrupt political establishment in Washington,” he said in a jibe at the outgoing Joe Biden administration.
Trump said that he will repeal every executive order outgoing president Joe Biden made.
Celebrating his victory in the US presidential elections one last time before taking the Oval Office, Trump also promised to remove “woke” policies from the military and school. He said that his administration is going to restore “patriotism” in schools.
Trump also said that he will visit California on Friday, January 24, to survey and assess the damage cause by the Los Angeles wildfires.
In addition, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was also present among the many dignitaries at the rally. Musk is the Republican’s pick to head the advisory committee called the ‘Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’.
Trump invited Musk on stage after speaking of DOGE, following which the Tesla CEO said, “… We’re looking forward to making a lot of changes. This victory is the start. What matters going forward is to make significant changes and set the foundation for America to be strong for centuries to come… Make America Great Again…”
Donald Trump will take oath as the president of the United States inside the rotunda of the Capitol building after the ceremony was moved indoors due to the cold weather. The event is expected to have around 25,000 law enforcement personnel to provide security.
(with inputs from agencies)
