With just a week left until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, his inaugural committee has shared the schedule for all the events leading up to the swearing-in of the 47th president.
Trump has overcome impeachments, indictments, assassination attempts, and unforced errors on the campaign trail that would have dealt severe blows to most other political candidates.
During the two months since Trump won the election, states and Congress have certified the results, a new Congress has convened, and Trump has been sentenced in his hush-money case.
These are all the key dates from Trump’s election victory until he becomes the next president.
State election officials began to certify their election results following the November 5 election.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission stated that Delaware was first in line, and had to certify their results by November 7. Georgia had to have certified their results by November 23, Michigan by November 25, and North Carolina and Nevada by November 26. Wisconsin followed on December 1 and Arizona on December 2, to name a few.
Transition briefings had to have started for the new Trump administration by November 11. Agencies brief incoming officials on their most important work and the top positions that have to be filled.
After certification of the results, state governors had to sign certificates of ascertainment to officially hand the state’s electors to the candidate that won the state in question. These signed documents were then handed to Congress and treated as the official results.
The documents, which had to be signed by December 11, include the names of the electors expected to cast the state’s votes in the subsequent Electoral College vote.
The electors met in each state to cast their votes for president and vice president. Along with the certificates of ascertainment, the recorded votes were then sent on to Congress and the National Archives.
The deadline for the Electoral College votes to have arrived in the nation’s capital is the fourth Wednesday in December – in 2024 that was Christmas Day.
The new Congress was sworn in after Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected on the first ballot after Trump spoke to some holdouts over the phone, urging them to back Johnson.
Four years after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, the Electoral College votes were counted without interruption. Vice President Kamala Harris oversaw the process of certifying her own defeat.
Trump came face to face with his former Vice President Mike Pence, and the two exchanged a few words and an awkward handshake, which is perhaps the most anyone could have hoped for given that their partnership ended with a crowd of Trump supporters calling for his second-in-command’s hanging during the Capitol riot. Pence’s wife Karen Pence declined to shake hands with either of the Trumps.
