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President-elect Donald Trump celebrated the eve of his second inauguration with a rally Sunday at the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, then a black tie dinner blocks away with a who’s who of Trump’s biggest financial backers and political allies, alongside business titans seeking proximity to power.
“Tomorrow at noon, the curtain closes our four long years of American decline, and we begin a brand new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride,” Trump said at the rally. “Once and for all, we’re going to end the reign of a failed and corrupt political establishment in Washington.”
Hours later at a candlelight dinner at the National Building Museum, the two richest men in the world, Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, were seen chatting. Nearby guests included House Speaker Mike Johnson and Fox News host Laura Ingraham. Trump strode in, flanked by his wife, Melania Trump, and told the assembled crowd of his plans for day one.
“Within hours of taking office I will sign dozens of executive orders, close to 100,” Trump said.
Some of those will be to invoke emergency powers as part of his plan to unleash domestic energy production while seeking to reverse President Joe Biden’s actions to combat climate change.
The president-elect is prepared to compel policy shifts that would enable new oil and gas development on federal lands, while directing a rollback of Biden-era climate regulations.
While many of the executive actions will simply kick off a lengthy regulatory process, they’re set to touch the full spectrum of the US energy industry, from oil fields to car dealerships. They also underscore Trump’s determination to reorient federal government policy behind oil and gas production, a sharp pivot from Biden’s efforts to curb fossil fuels.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed he would declare a national emergency on energy, saying it was needed to increase output and address burgeoning demand from the rapid uptake of artificial intelligence.
“We’re going to be using our emergency powers to allow countries and entrepreneurs and people with a lot of money build big plants, AI plants,” Trump said. “We need double the energy that we already have, and it’s going to end up being more than that.”
Declaring a national emergency allows a president to tap into as many as 150 special powers normally intended to address hurricanes, terrorist attacks and other unforeseen events, according to a report by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Speakers and performers at the event included musician Kid Rock, actor Jon Voight, and Dana White, the CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, while billionaire supporter Musk joined the president-elect on stage at the 20,000-seat arena, home to the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals.
“What matters going forward is to actually make significant changes,” Musk said. “Have us submit those changes, and it will set the foundation for America to be strong for a century, for centuries, forever.”
Trump used the rally to celebrate the decision by TikTok to reinstate service after pledging earlier Sunday he would use executive action to hold off a legislative ban of the social video app.
“As of today, TikTok is back!” Trump said.
But he indicated that his previous pledge for a “joint venture” might be a company co-owned by a US company and the US government, rather than Chinese-owned ByteDance Ltd. and a US partner. The Trump transition did not immediately respond to a request to clarify his intentions.
“I said, I’ll approve, but let the United States of America own 50% of Tik Tok,” Trump said. “I’m approving on behalf of the United States. So they’ll have a partner — the United States — and they’ll have a lot of bidders.”
Trump said there was no risk to taxpayers because the government was not putting up money in the deal.
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