Good morning! It's a sad day for federal employees in the Washington, D.C. area. Inauguration Day is a federal holiday for them due to security and congestion concerns. And while today is Inauguration Day, it's also MLK Day. So they're already off. Pour one out for the bonus holiday, gang. Best of luck four years from now.

On a related note, pour one out for President Grover Cleveland’s historical notoriety. Serving two non-consecutive terms just isn’t the calling card it used to be. At precisely 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time, President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office and replace President Joe Biden as the most powerful man in the world. Let’s dive in.

Programming note: This week, Trump will take office and begin signing some executive orders as the Senate begins confirming his Cabinet. But the big stuff will take more time. With that in mind, we’re taking this Thursday off. We’ll be back next Monday with a thicc explanation of every move being made in Trump 2: Government Boogaloo.

INAUGURATION

🇺🇸 It’s moving day at the White House

It’s with a heavy heart that we point out something today that’s of particular interest to the Millennials out there: A few hours from now, one of our own will take office as vice president of the United States. So long, youth. Just yesterday, our avocado toast was destroying the fast food industry. Now we’re running the country.

The inauguration festivities begin with the traditional church service at St. John's Episcopal Church across the street from the White House. From there, the Trumps will join the Bidens for an hour-long meeting over tea in their new home. The two first couples will then take a ride down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol for the inauguration.

The ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar will kick things off, followed by an invocation from Rev. Franklin Graham (that's Billy Jr.) and the archbishop of New York.

• Following what’s certain to be a bangin' opera performance, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh will administer the oath of office to incoming Vice President JD Vance.

• Carrie Underwood will then join two military choirs to sing "America the Beautiful.”

• Then it's show time: Chief Justice John G. Roberts will administer the oath of office to President-elect Donald Trump. Once he’s been sworn into office, Trump will deliver his inaugural address.

Much to the dismay of the 250,000 people planning to attend, the inauguration has been moved indoors due to cold weather. With wind chills in the single digits, this will be the coldest ceremony in 40 years. The last-minute decision threw planners for a loop, but the Capitol Rotunda is ready for its close up.

• The VIP guest list has been decimated as a result — the room only holds a few hundred people.

• But there is still space for the former first families. With the sole exception of Michelle Obama, all living presidents and First Ladies will attend.

The best perk of being president? Not having to ask your friends to move. During the inaugural festivities — including the inauguration itself, the inaugural luncheon that follows, and the inaugural parade (now indoors at Capitol One Arena) — packing peanuts will be flying at the White House.

• In six short hours, the Bidens’ belongings will disappear and the Trumps’ will be unpacked. Everything from neck ties to toothpaste will be slotted into place.

• When the new president walks in to change clothes for the inaugural balls this evening, it’ll feel just like home.

What else will Trump find waiting for him? In keeping with a tradition began by Presidents Reagan and Bush in the 1980s, the outgoing president leaves a handwritten letter for the new guy in the Oval Office.

47

🏛️ Trump administration takes shape

Getting anything through Congress takes, well, an act of Congress (it ain't easy). But President Donald Trump won't need to wait for the legislative branch to begin making his mark. As with all modern presidents, Trump plans to sign a bevy of executive orders in his first few days (back) in office. Executive orders (EOs) are the president's method of directing the behavior of the executive branch.

• Immigration: Trump is expected to restore his first-term Remain in Mexico policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico (rather than in the U.S.) for potential asylum approval. He also plans to challenge the existing concept of birthright citizenship for illegal migrants and other visitors.

• Energy: The late-stage Biden administration signed an order banning future oil drilling on ~1 million square miles of federal coastal waters. Expect the new Trump administration to sign an order reversing that today, fulfilling Trump's promise to open up drilling on day one.

• AI: In keeping with a campaign promise, Trump is likely to reverse Biden's executive order forcing AI companies to report many of their activities to the Commerce Department.

Congress: During the inaugural festivities late this afternoon, the Senate will convene to begin confirmation votes on Trump’s less controversial Cabinet picks. First up? Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as secretary of State. Votes on other, spicier picks — like Defense nominee Pete Hegseth — may take a bit longer.

• Republicans will want him confirmed by the end of this week, but minority party senators have a history of dragging out the process for weeks or months on some nominees.

• No matter what happens with Senate politics, the big jobs won’t stay empty. While the confirmation process plays out for Trump’s picks, the roles will be filled temporarily by “acting” secretaries.

TRIVIA

Inauguration Day is the quadrennial Super Bowl for political geeks. To celebrate the spectacle, we’ve got an expanded, five-part trivia section today featuring the best Inauguration-related trivia questions money can buy.

1. Unfortunately for the private detectives of the world, wearing a goofy hat with a suit hasn’t been a thing for a very long time. Who was the last president to wear a top hat to his inauguration?

2. Presidents haven’t always taken office on January 20. Until the Twentieth Amendment was ratified, the big day was on March 4. Who was the last president inaugurated on March 4?

3. We all know by now that Inauguration Day rolls around on January 20. Except when it doesn’t. If the inauguration falls on a Sunday, the public festivities are postponed by a day. Who is the most recent president to have been inaugurated on a Monday?

4. In his first term, President Trump was backed up by Vice President Mike Pence. This time around, it’ll be JD Vance. Prior to Trump, who was the most recent president elected to two terms alongside two different vice presidents?

WORLD

📱 Is that what boredom feels like?

Goodnight, sweet prince. Americans temporarily lost the ability to use TikTok over the weekend when the app's parent company, ByteDance, pulled the plug as the sell-or-ban law came into effect. The company has exhausted every legal remedy since President Biden signed the law last April. That culminated last week with a unanimous loss at the Supreme Court. Conveniently for Biden, the law kicked in on his last full day in office, making it an easy buck to pass off to the next guy.

• Access was quickly restored after Trump announced that he’ll sign an order giving TikTok a 90-day reprieve.

• The 2024 ban law includes a provision allowing the president to do this if a viable sale is underway.

Will someone buy it? TikTok's previously indicated that selling wasn't an option. But, now that legal options are exhausted, CEO Shou Zi Chew cracked the door to the idea on Friday. Prior bids for TikTok — by everyone from Shark Tank's Mr. Wonderful to YouTube's Mr. Beast — have fallen on deaf ears.

• But a new idea from Perplexity AI might have legs. Instead of a sale, the AI search engine is pursuing a merger. The deal is said to be worth more than $50 billion.

• To stay in bounds with the law, the new company wouldn't be allowed to have any corporate connection to China.

Elsewhere in government: President Biden's closing salvo on Friday was his public declaration that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is now part of the Constitution. He cited Virginia's 2020 ratification of the would-be 28th Amendment as proof that the requisite 38 states had signed off. Not many news outlets are taking this seriously, however, and the U.S. Archivist threw cold water on the plan back in December. But some of the amendment's supporters want to test this theory in court.

• As a reminder, the ERA has a long and not-at-all straightforward history. Check out our summary here.

BRIEFS

● Three Israeli hostages are back home as part of the new Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal. Ninety Palestinian prisoners will be released in return.

● Donald Trump's first official trip as president will be to California. He'll travel to the Los Angeles area late next week to view areas impacted by the ongoing wildfires.

● Mel Gibson was as surprised as the rest of us when Donald Trump named him, alongside Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, a "Special Ambassador" to Hollywood. The president says the trio will help usher in the "Golden Age of Hollywood.”

● Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng will attend Donald Trump's inauguration today, becoming the first senior Chinese official to attend an American presidential inauguration. Incoming U.S. VP JD Vance met with Han yesterday.

QUOTE

ANSWER

1. Sixty-four years ago today, John F. Kennedy — the youngest man ever elected president — rolled with tradition and threw on a top hat for his big day. But he took it off mid-inauguration and, just like that, no more top hats.

2. The last president sworn in on March 4 was also the first one sworn in on January 20. Franklin D. Roosevelt began his stay in the White House on March 4, 1933. Considering that he was eventually elected four times, he probably didn't mind that he'd been shorted 43 days when his second term began on January 20, 1937.

3. The last president whose first-term inauguration was pushed back off of a Sunday was Rutherford B. Hayes wayyyyy back in 1877 (he still took office in private on Sunday, but the party had to wait). As luck would have it, this calendar quirk seems to happen more often on second-term festivities. The most recent? Barack Obama's second go-round, in 2013.

4. The most recent president to serve alongside two different VPs was Richard Nixon. But he wasn't elected alongside both. The first guy was forced to resign due to a scandal, so Nixon nominated a replacement. The last president elected alongside two No. 2s was actually elected alongside three of 'em: Franklin D. Roosevelt.