WASHINGTON
\nDonald Trump sworn in as the 45th president of the United States Friday — capping his improbable journey to the White House and beginning a four-year term that promises to shake up Washington and the world.
\nAn estimated 800,000 people will gather on the National Mall in the center of the nation\u2019s capital to celebrate a man whose short 19-month political career has defied all predictions, and many norms.
\nThrough the clear, cool morning, crowds of people began descending on the nation\u2019s capital Friday to celebrate, protest or simply witness the inauguration of the most unconventional president-elect in modern American history, Donald John Trump.
\nAt noon, the Republican real estate mogul will take the oath of office and become the 45th commander in chief of the United States, capping a campaign that galvanized millions of Americans who were eager to embrace a Washington outsider willing to say, or tweet, whatever is on his mind. Trump \u2014 who has never before held elected office \u2014 was jubilant Friday morning before attending a service at St. John\u2019s Episcopal Church and sharing tea with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
\nWhen Trump descended the escalators of his glitzy New York tower in June 2015, his run for office was dismissed and even mocked.
\nBut shortly before midday Friday, Trump will place his hand on Abraham Lincoln\u2019s bible, recite the oath of office on the steps of the Capitol and become the most powerful man on earth.
\nIn the primaries, he dominated a crowded Republican presidential field with bareknuckle rhetoric and star power. He rode that same wave of anti-elite sentiment to victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election.
\nAt 70 years of age, he is the oldest man ever to begin work in the Oval Office.
\nBut the real estate mogul and one-time television reality star is also a political neophyte — he will be the first president never to have held elected office, served in the government or the armed forces.
\nFor his supporters, like Jake, a Californian who traveled to Washington for the inauguration, that is a central part of Trump\u2019s appeal.
\n\u201cIt honestly feels like we won the American Revolution again,\u201d he said. \u201cI really feel like we\u2019ve taken back our culture, we\u2019ve taken back our country.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve really been under attack from a lot of the establishment on both sides of the aisle — we\u2019ve been under attack from the media, from the celebrities.\u201d
\nThe change in Washington — in many ways a company town — was already palpable late Thursday when Trump bopped along to country music during a pre-inaugural concert at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.
\nThe music popular in America\u2019s heartland had replaced the strains of Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen that marked Barack Obama\u2019s two terms at the White House.
\nFor his critics, Trump\u2019s arrival in Washington on Thursday onboard an Air Force jet was more like a hostile takeover than a traditional changing of the guard.
\nSmall demonstrations popped up across the city center declaring Trump illegitimate and a much larger rally is planned for Saturday.
\nOn Thursday evening, hundreds of anti-Trump protesters demonstrated outside a Washington pro-Trump event, heckling and shouting at departing guests and lighting protests signs on fire before police used chemical spray on the crowd.
\nTrump enters office with a 37 percent approval rating, the lowest on record, according to a CBS News poll.
\nAs Obama\u2019s White House staff cleaned out their desks and the normally busy corridors of the West Wing fell quiet, many staffers expressed relief at the prospect of rest, but foreboding about the road ahead.
\nThat sentiment is echoed across many of the world\u2019s capitals. Trump has vowed to tear up Obama\u2019s policies and re-examine decades-old alliances with Europe and in Asia.
\nOne of Obama\u2019s last acts in office was to speak to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and declare trans-Atlantic ties vital for the world order — a statement that would have been a banal platitude before this rocky transition.
\nStill, Obama has one more part to play, hosting Trump and his wife Melania in the Blue Room of the White House for morning tea Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON Donald Trump sworn in as the 45th president of the United States Friday — capping his improbable journey to the White House and beginning a four-year term that promises to shake up Washington and the world. An estimated 800,000 people will gather on the National Mall in the center of the nation\u2019s capital to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n