• Donald Trump returned to Washington, previewing executive actions on immigration and repealing Joe Biden’s policies.
• He promised clemency for January 6 defendants, calling them ‘patriots’ and pledging pardons.
• The rally marked Trump’s comeback, with support from business leaders and former critics like Mark Zuckerberg.

United States President-elect Donald Trump’s public debut in Washington today NZT recycled much of his campaign trail speeches, painting a dark picture of America and demonising undocumented immigrants as violent criminals as he previewed launching a massive deportation operation.

Trump spoke to thousands of supporters a few blocks from the site of the violent attack at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, which led to five deaths and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power. Trump left the city a pariah, facing a second impeachment and, eventually, criminal investigations over inciting the attack.

Today, he returned triumphant, signalling to the city that his election in November has rewritten the narrative of how his first term ended.

He was joined by business titans and celebrities who once shunned him and by leaders of a Republican Party now fully moulded in his image.

Trump previewed to the crowd at the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena a flurry of day-one executive actions on the border, oil drilling, and repealing policies from the outgoing Biden Administration.

He also suggested he would grant some form of clemency for those charged in the attack on the US Capitol four years ago, whom he repeatedly pledged to pardon.

“You’re going to see executive orders that are going to make you extremely happy. Lots of them,” Trump said. “Everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J6 hostages.”

Trump also promised to root out “divisive diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates” across government and repeal “every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden Administration” within his first hours in office.

US President-elect Donald Trump reacts during a Maga victory rally at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, ahead of his inauguration ceremony tomorrow. Photo / AFP

He indicated that he would at least temporarily lift a ban on the popular social media app TikTok that was adopted by Congress with bipartisan support and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Trump boasted about his election victory, but the end of the 2024 campaign didn’t lead to more conciliatory language by him or his allies. Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly used her time to deride Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump attributed his victory not to a clean election but to the failure of cheating attempts, without offering any evidence or specific allegations.

During a speech lasting just under an hour, Trump twice paused to play videos he used on the campaign blaming Harris for immigrant gangs, ridiculing the military’s inclusion of transgender people and splicing videos of drag queens with clips from the movie Full Metal Jacket.

The rally served as a rebuke of the political establishment that once tried to cast Trump out, said Trump ally Mike Davis, a lawyer and Maga commentator.

“Seems like the only people who still care about January 6th live inside the Beltway,” he said.

Trump ran for a second term unrepentant about January 6, insisting it was a peaceful protest, threatening to prosecute people who investigated the events and calling those convicted of attacking the Capitol “patriots” and promising to pardon them. He has never stopped maintaining his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

President-elect Donald Trump greeting supporters at Capital One Arena in Washington. Photo / the Washington Post

A wide swathe of the electorate embraced it all, or at least concluded that his false claims and incitement of the riot were not disqualifying. His rally is an invitation to them, too – a welcome back to Washington for some who were barred from the city for their roles in the January 6 attack.

Among the Trump supporters who travelled to Washington to witness Trump’s return to power is William Pope, 38, who is awaiting trial on January 6 charges. Pope is restricted from visiting DC, but a judge gave him special permission to travel from Kansas for the inauguration.

For four years, Pope said, the fallout from January 6 has upended his life. He said he lost a teaching job and was banned from Facebook. He’s hopeful that with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg planning to attend Trump’s inauguration and Trump promising a mass pardon for January 6 defendants, he’ll be vindicated.

When he and his brother travelled to Washington in 2021 they thought they were attending Trump’s “final rally”. When the crowd marched to the Capitol, he followed and was among those who entered the building – though he says he was pushed inside. He was charged with civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, among other offences.

Now, Pope was seeing Trump again – this time at his victory rally.

“It’s definitely a historic comeback,” he said. “I really don’t know if there’s another parallel to it in American history.”

The Village People performed one of Trump's favourite rally songs, Y.M.C.A. after his speech. Photo / the Washington Post

Thousands of people bundled in coats, gloves and Make America Great Again hats stood shoulder to shoulder as they packed the footpaths and streets near the arena, many standing in the freezing temperature since the early morning.

Among them was Adrian Lawrence, 48, who travelled from his home in Newport, Washington state, with his wife, Esther, and two of their nine children.

This was the couple’s first time back to the District since January 6, 2021, when they brought four of their kids and waited hours in line to attend Trump’s rally at the Ellipse. Then, they said they joined the crowd marching to the US Capitol, but did not go inside.

Trump’s redemption is widespread, with former critics including Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (who owns the Washington Post) planning to attend Trump’s swearing-in.

Coca-Cola, which four years ago called January 6 “an offence to the ideals of American democracy”, this week sent Trump special commemorative Diet Coke bottles to celebrate his inauguration. Companies that once swore off donations to those who denied the 2020 election are now helping to bankroll the festivities.

And the Village People closed out the event by performing one of Trump’s favourite rally songs, Y.M.C.A. They are also scheduled to perform at two inaugural balls even though lead singer Victor Willis asked Trump to stop using their music during the 2020 racial justice protests. Other musical performers included Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.

US President-elect Donald Trump dances as the Village People perform at a Maga victory rally, one day ahead of his inauguration ceremony. Photo / AFP

Even those who still count themselves part of a resistance are resisting less. A protest in Washington on Sunday NZT did not yield anywhere near the crowds that filled the streets for the historic Women’s March in 2017.

“Now instead of hashtag resistance it’s like … hashtag surrender … hashtag capitulation,” said David Urban, a Trump ally and Republican strategist, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Trump is taking advantage of the moment to control the storyline, said Hans Noel, a Georgetown University politics professor. It won’t be about the massive opposition to Trump but rather “about all these triumphant events that Trump has done”, he said.

The rally contributes to that narrative, he added: “He wants to give a sense of being more popular, to amp up the intensity of that”.

Trump’s team aggressively advertised the rally to supporters this month, sending text blasts about the “EPIC” event several times over the past week.

Speakers included some of Trump’s most prominent surrogates from the campaign, such as billionaire donor Elon Musk and Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive Dana White, who just joined the board of Facebook’s parent company. Stephen Miller, a top adviser who has spearheaded Trump’s immigration policies, spoke too, previewing day-one executive action on the border and deportations.

Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff touted an early foreign policy win – the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal announced last week that Trump said was only possible because of his victory. The Biden Administration has pushed back, noting months of work on the deal.

Trump’s pre-party is not without precedent. Barack Obama held a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial ahead of his 2009 inauguration with performances from Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, U2, and many other A-list stars.

“Obama was basking in the idea that he was making history. The kind of rich symbolism in these events is always telling,” said Matt Dallek, a professor at George Washington University.

“It’s less that Trump is holding a rally than it is the fact that it’s four years after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, that Trump has defeated the law, the criminal indictments against him for the most part. He’s chosen a particular kind of celebration that reflects his desire to celebrate the January 6 felons.”

“The rally is a moment of triumph and vindication for him,” Dallek said. “He gets to come back and say, ‘I’m here. I’m taking back the throne, and all those things I did four years ago didn’t matter."