President-elect Donald Trump will hold a rally on Jan. 19, one day before his Inauguration Day, according to an announcement he made to supporters this week.
“This is President Trump’s VICTORY RALLY the DAY before being sworn in as the 47th President — the crowd needs to be HUGE!” said an email to supporters Thursday advertising the rally, which will be held at the Capital One Arena in Washington on Jan. 19.
The event will be Trump’s first rally since he won the presidential election on Nov. 5. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Trump held numerous rallies on a near-daily basis and sometimes held several in one day.
The Capital One Arena, where the Washington Wizards NBA and Washington Capitals NHL teams both play, can seat more than 20,300 people.
Trump invited a number of world leaders to his inauguration on Jan. 20. It’s not clear yet if any leaders will attend the event.
The incoming president has pledged to begin a mass deportation effort as soon as he takes office. He’s also vowed to levy massive tariffs against the United States’ chief economic competitor, China, as well as neighbors Canada and Mexico unless those countries do more to reduce illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States.
In recent days, he’s faced pressure from conservatives about comments made by two of his surrogates, tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, regarding H-1B visas and foreign workers. The H-1B visa program allows for 5,000 highly skilled foreign workers inside the country annually along with 20,000 foreigners who obtained an advanced degree from a U.S. institution to fill specialized job positions.
Trump told reporters on Tuesday evening that he supports the program and said he has “always felt we have to have the most competent people in our country.”
“We need competent people. We need smart people coming into our country,” Trump said. “We need a lot of people coming in. We’re going to have jobs like we’ve never had before.”
For his Day 1 in the White House, Trump also pledged to move quickly to end Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine in short order, end federal mandates for electric vehicles, increase drilling for oil and fracking for natural gas, cut funding for schools that teach critical race theory or have a vaccine mandate, pardon some Jan. 6 defendants, and more.
