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CNN Live Event/Special

Donald Trump's Second Inauguration Just Hours Away; IDF: Freed Hostages Reunited with Their Mothers; Trump Hails TikTok's Return Hours Ahead of Inauguration; China, U.S. Try to Balance Relationship Amid TikTok Battle; Trump Promises 100s of Executive Orders on First Day; Mexico Preparing for Trump's Immigration Plans. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 20, 2025 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: Welcome, everyone, to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Omar Jimenez.

[00:00:26]

It is now officially inauguration day in Washington, D.C., where we're just hours away from an historic moment when Donald J. Trump will take the oath of office and complete his return to the White House.

He will be sworn in as the 47th president inside the Capitol Rotunda, with freezing temperatures forcing the ceremony indoors.

We're learning that President Joe Biden and Trump will ride in the same limo to the Capitol. Biden will also follow presidential tradition by leaving a letter for Trump in the Oval Office.

Security in Washington, as you might imagine, is exceptionally high. Law enforcement has been patrolling the area around Capitol Hill ahead of the inauguration.

The president-elect celebrated his victory with a rally Sunday on what he called the eve of taking back our country. He spoke to supporters at the Capital One Arena in D.C. and laid out an aggressive plan to tackle his top priorities, including immigration reform.

Sources tell CNN Trump intends to issue more than 100 executive orders and actions on his first day in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country. We have to do it. We're not going to have a country left.

Before even taking office, you are already seeing results that nobody expected to see. Everyone is calling it the -- I don't want to say this. It's too braggadocious, but we'll say it anyway. The Trump effect.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JIMENEZ: CNN's Jeff Zeleny gives us a closer look at how Donald Trump will spend his inauguration day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From one president to another. The peaceful transfer of power will soon be underway here in Washington --

ZELENY (voice-over): -- with President-elect Donald Trump, of course, the 45th and soon to be 47th president of the United States, meeting with President Biden, the 46th president at the White House on Monday morning.

The presidents and their families are scheduled to meet privately with the first ladies, as we'll as Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.

And then the two presidents will ride along Pennsylvania Avenue up to Capitol Hill for that inaugural ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

This, of course, is a peaceful transfer of power, a normal piece of democracy that was not afforded to President Biden four years ago, when Donald Trump skipped the inauguration and left Washington essentially in political ruins.

That has changed tremendously. His triumph was on full display on Sunday night at a rally at the Capital One arena --

ZELENY: -- not far from here at the White House.

He'll be also going there on Monday afternoon for sort of an indoor parade. All the festivities were moved inside because of -- because of the bitter cold in Washington.

ZELENY (voice-over): The president-elect talked about all the executive orders he plans to sign on day one, indeed, in the first hours of his first day back in power. On immigration, on pardoning some January 6th defendants, also on TikTok, a point he took credit for on Sunday night.

TRUMP: I said, we need to save TikTok, because we're talking about a tremendous -- who in this audience goes with TikTok? Many?

Yes, very popular. And frankly, we have no choice. We have to save it.

ZELENY (voice-over): Thousands of cheering Trump supporters were inside that arena. Many more were outside. They could not fit in: arriving to Washington, hoping to witness the inauguration.

Of course, the crowd has changed significantly, because only a couple hundred people can fit in the Rotunda, one of whom is likely to be Elon Musk, a senior adviser to the president who had a brief cameo appearance at the rally on Sunday evening, coming to the stage to talk for just a moment.

ZELENY: It is a reminder that, even though this is the -- essentially, a redo of the first Trump administration, so many differences are under way and will be on display.

This time, President Trump, his advisers say, knows his way around the White House, knows his way around the West Wing. So, they say things will be so much different.

Elon Musk, of course, is one example of a new adviser in this president's orbit.

But on Monday, January 20th, here in Washington, again, the peaceful transfer of power, a lot of pomp, a lot of circumstance. And then Donald Trump takes office as the 47th president.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: All right. Thank you, Jeff.

Let's bring in our panel: Republican strategist Katie Frost; CNN political commentator Maria Cardona; and CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston. They're all joining us from Washington.

Thanks for staying up on this official -- We're officially here, inauguration day. I just want to point out we're past midnight, so it's all good to go.

[00:05:03]

Katie, I want to start with you, because we played some of the sound earlier from Trump as he essentially says he's going to fix the crises in this country, that we're already seeing results, and that he's calling it the -- the, quote, "Trump effect."

What do you see as the Trump effect?

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: We'll, it's great to be with you. You know, what I see as the Trump effect is a spirit of optimism.

Like you said, we're all in Washington. And I'll tell you, there is an incredible electric feeling here.

I've been at event after event, meeting people from all across the country, and they're excited.

You know, I was also here eight years ago, and at that time I was cautiously optimistic.

People wanted to see, what would a Trump presidency be like? And now, after living with a Trump presidency, and I would say, even more importantly, living with a Biden presidency, people are thrilled to be having President Trump coming and returning to the Oval Office.

There's a lot of optimism.

What would I say that the Trump effect is? If I had to pick one word, I would say confidence or optimism. That is how I view the Trump effect.

JIMENEZ: And, Maria, I want to bring you in on some of those points here, because I think no secret, Sunday, inauguration day, Trump is taking a very big victory lap. And with some of the executive orders we're expecting here, set to undo a lot of what Biden put in place.

I wonder, as one president returns and one leaves office, what do you see as Biden's legacy, leaving office here?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We'll, what I think the -- President Biden's legacy will be -- and we've all seen the poll numbers that have not been very good to him.

But I think long term, the long arc of history will be very kind to President Biden.

He put in place historic legislation, on a bipartisan basis, that lifted this country after Donald Trump left the economy in a tailspin.

We were losing millions of American jobs; 3,000 Americans were dying every day because of COVID, because Donald Trump did not know how to manage and ignored the science of COVID. And that is what President Biden and his team had to deal with coming in.

Let's not forget that today, the country, the United States of America, is the envy of the world when it comes to its economy.

President Biden put in historic proposals and -- and fixed what was an ailing economy when he came in: 15 million jobs created, more Americans on health care than ever before.

And so, all of those things are things that will matter.

And of course, we know what the election results were. President Biden is giving Donald Trump a peaceful transfer of power, which Donald Trump did not give Biden when he came into office in -- in in 2020. And again, another big difference.

And so, I do think that history will be kind to Joe Biden.

And now it's Donald Trump's turn. And he does own everything. Today, he said that he's going to fix every single crisis that faces the country. I doubt he's going to be able to keep that promise.

He's already said that he's not going to be able to bring down the prices of groceries as quickly as he thought.

So, Democrats are going to be there every step of the way to hold him accountable, to make sure that the American people get the presidency that they deserve. Sadly, I don't think it's going to be what they think it's going to be, but we'll see.

I'm going to maintain right now, today, I'm going to be positive and hope that Donald Trump will work for all Americans. But we many people know who Donald Trump is at his core. And I don't think it's going to be that. JIMENEZ: We'll, I know you will be looking for even the slightest

slip-up, so I can count on you for that.

And I know -- I know you'll be the first to bring it up next time you're on.

Mark, I want to bring you in here because, look, for all the partisanship that led up to the election, and even in the celebrating we've seen by the Trump campaign and Republicans since, I mean, here Biden is expected to ride with Trump. Inauguration day he's leaving Trump a letter, as is tradition.

I know you've seen many presidential transitions, but what do you make of Biden's relationship with the incoming administration? From this to, of course, even -- even the ceasefire agreement in Israel, which we know Trump's Middle East envoy also worked on? What do you make of the relationship between these two administrations?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: We'll, one is that Joe Biden, certainly, Omar, is old-school. I wouldn't expect anything less than for him to follow the tradition that, you know, just about every other president in recent times has followed.

So, it's no surprise that he did that. I do think, though, when we look back on -- on the Biden legacy, it's not something that we can necessarily determine right now.

There's too much emotion right now between Democrats, you know, having lost. There's too much emotion amongst Republicans who -- who have won.

It's always good to wait ten, 20 years and let the historians look back and then decide, really, was it a good presidency? Was it a bad presidency?

I will say, though, as far as them working together, there really is no working relationship, except -- except, except, except -- we should say kudos to both the incoming Trump administration and the outgoing Biden administration to work together to solidify this peace agreement. That -- this very, very fragile peace agreement that were seeing in the Middle East right now, that that is pretty amazing.

[00:10:23]

Beyond that, though, look at -- we heard Donald Trump say it, you know, just a few hours ago. He is going to go in and try to undo everything Joe Biden did. That should say it all about their relationship.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Katie Frost, Maria Cardona, Mark Preston, stick around. We're going to bring you back in a few minutes. We'll talk about some of these executive orders we're expecting to see, and we're going to see a lot of them, at least as far as what we've heard so far. So, stay close.

Meanwhile, we're going to bring you up to speed on a few other stories, including Trump is claiming full credit for the Gaza ceasefire hostage deal.

And at his rally on -- in D.C. on Sunday, the president-elect said the agreement between Israel and Hamas happened as a result of his, quote, "historic electoral victory."

Now, the first stage of the deal played out Sunday in Tel Aviv, the scene of an emotional reunion between the three freed hostages and their mothers.

And look, Hamas and its allies are expected to release over 30 hostages over the next six weeks for what is expected to be the first phase of a potential multi-phase ceasefire deal.

These were some of the scenes, of course, as freed hostages were reunited with their family after, I mean, years at this point in captivity.

Nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, as we'll, being held in Israeli jails will be freed, where we saw large crowds in the West Bank, they greeted the first group of 90 Palestinian prisoners released as part of the deal.

Our Paula Hancocks joins us live from Abu Dhabi right now. Paula Hancocks, so just bring us up to speed on what we're -- what we're seeing.

We're already seeing the very first exchanges of people back and forth. And it seems to this point that the ceasefire agreement does seem to be holding.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It does, Omar. And what we have seen over the past 24 hours is a rare sight of unadulterated joy on both sides.

You have the joy of those families of the three freed Israeli hostages, finally being able to hug their children, their sisters, their loved ones.

And on the other side, you also saw some 90 Palestinian prisoners being released from Israeli prisons. And the unadulterated joy and celebrations on that side, as we'll, as families once again were reunited.

So, this is really, as I say, a very rare moment where you can see joy in this particular neck of the woods.

Now, of course, we are hearing from all sides that it is joy mixed with fear, mixed with caution. Will there be the 30 hostages of this phase one? Will that hold? Will they be released over the next six weeks?

And of course, there are expected to be hundreds more Palestinian prisoners released.

But the key thing that we did see, as we'll, was hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks moving into Gaza. Now, according to the U.N. relief chief, Tom Fletcher, some 630 trucks managed to get into the Gaza Strip. About 300 of those were expected to move towards Northern Gaza.

Now, that's far more than this decimated area has seen in months.

So, the effort to try and stem the famine, stem the starvation, bring in supplies that are acutely needed across the Gaza Strip has begun. And we are seeing and hearing that there will be at least 600 trucks a day going in. At least that is part of the deal.

We heard from Tom Fletcher saying, after 15 months of relentless war, the humanitarian needs are staggering. So, this is a key part of this to look at, as we'll.

And you're also seeing hundreds and thousands of Palestinians on the move, as Israeli troops did move from parts of Northern and Southern Gaza, according to an Israeli official, telling CNN they are pulling back from those populated areas as part of this deal.

You are seeing thousands of people on the move back home. They are going on foot, on donkey carts, any way that they can. Some lucky ones going by car.

But of course, what will wait for them and what is going to be waiting for them when they get to where their home is -- is -- is really unexpected, or they don't know what they will find.

We know that over 90 percent of housing units, according to the U.N., have either been destroyed or badly damaged.

So, this is just the start of a mammoth task ahead to -- to try and bring some kind of normality to Gaza, but to take it back to what we did see over the past 24 hours. It is a positive move.

[00:15:16]

It is a rare view of -- of excitement, of joy, of family reunions -- reunions on both sides, the Palestinian prisoners and also those Israeli hostages -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And during some of what you were saying, they were showing just the devastating scenes of -- of infrastructure destroyed in Gaza.

So, obviously, you mentioned it was unknown to see what people might be returning to, but this is the beginning of what is supposed to be a six-week process. And we are just at the beginning right now, seeing, again, scenes of mixed emotion.

Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, thank you so much.

Meanwhile, just hours from now, the United States will have a new president, but with a familiar face. Donald Trump says one of his first moves will be saving TikTok. What he says he'll do to make that happen, next, as our coverage of Donald Trump's inauguration continues. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: As of today, TikTok is back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Donald Trump is hailing the quick return of TikTok, hours ahead of his second inauguration ceremony. And among those expected to attend that ceremony is -- is the app's CEO. Even as uncertainty surrounds his platform.

TikTok is already coming back online after it went down in the U.S. late Saturday, just before a ban took effect.

The app credits Trump, though, for its whiplash rebound, hours after Trump said on Sunday that he would delay enforcing the ban. American TikTok users regained access.

Now, the president-elect says the platform must be, quote, "saved."

Joining us now out of Gainesville, Florida, is Andrew Selepak. He is a social media professor at the University of Florida.

Thanks for being here.

So, let's talk TikTok. TikTok welcomed users back with a notification that said, "Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S." They also cited him in the message, telling users TikTok wasn't available. And all of this is after Trump previously supported a TikTok ban.

But I wonder, what do you make of TikTok specifically citing Trump as the arbiter of power of sorts in the face of 170 million people's "for you" pages?

ANDREW SELEPAK, SOCIAL MEDIA PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: We'll, the big thing is that right now, you know, the Biden administration decided they were going to leave it up to Donald Trump. And Donald Trump has said that he is willing to kind of put this 90-day sort of hold on the app being banned.

So, right now, their fate is kind of tied into the hands of Donald Trump, at least for the next 90 days.

And you know, what's interesting about this is Trump's view doesn't seem to be uniform across the Republican Party. Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, for example. They commended Apple, Google, and more for -- for halting operations, even if it was brief, with ByteDance and TikTok.

I mean, where do you see this -- this going? What are the implications here of a -- of a potential TikTok ban? SELEPAK: We'll, Trump's views on it aren't consistent either.

Obviously, he was the first one, you know, going back four years ago that was a big supporter of the ban and then kind of made some different opinions on it in 2024, partially because it was one of the platforms where he was able to reach young people, which obviously, was very helpful for his election.

You know, I think what we're looking at right now is that Trump is somebody who really, at a whim, can kind of change his mind on a lot of things.

But I think one of the big things that he's looking at it, is from the perspective of how could he potentially use this in negotiations with China on issues like trade, on other issues that are in terms of technology.

We know that Elon Musk obviously has a big relationship now with Trump, and Musk is very much tied into China with Tesla.

So, there's a lot of things going on, a lot of moving parts that really, as we've seen over the weekend, can change in a matter of hours.

JIMENEZ: And I mean, even if it is, let's say, sold completely or on a 50/50 stake, which I know has been -- has been floated in some circles, as we'll. I mean, would it be the same?

I mean, TikTok's algorithm is what every social media company seems to want. Would that algorithm be able to survive a sort of Americanized -- Americanized sort of split or rebranding of TikTok.

SELEPAK: We'll, I think the big thing is that we kind of know that China is not going to give away this algorithm. It is the best algorithm out there.

I think most companies are trying to match it, copy it, try to find some way to -- to basically replicate it. And they've been unable to do so.

That probably wouldn't be involved in a complete sale. You're basically just going to get the name. You're going to get the platform, the videos that are kind of stored right now by Oracle.

So, without the algorithm, it's kind of unclear what the platform would be worth. I mean, we saw with X, it was purchased for 44 billion. Who knows what the cost of an American TikTok would be without the algorithm?

And at the same time, if there is an American-only sort of TikTok, then do you have standalone versions outside of the U.S. -- say in the E.U., across the world -- would users there then have to download an American TikTok?

So, a lot of this is unclear how it would work out; if it was a full sale, a 50/50 sale, which Trump is now floating. What that would mean for users outside the United States to see American content, how the algorithm would maybe be purchased, maybe not be purchased.

And all of this would have to get done in 90 days. I mean, Trump can put this 90-day hold on it. He can, you know, pass this executive order, you know, sign this executive order.

But after that 90 days, it really goes back to it's banned again. So, all that would have to get done in 90 days, deciding a cost. And it seems kind of unlikely.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Ninety days feels like a long time but simultaneously just a blip, especially at the start of an administration.

Andrew Selepak, really appreciate you being here. Thanks for taking the time.

SELEPAK: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: Now, in a rare step, China's vice president is expected to attend Donald Trump's inauguration. He may be looking to bail out Chinese-owned TikTok and maintain an open dialog with Beijing.

[00:25:05]

But Trump is signaling a hard-line economic stance with China overall.

I want to go to CNN's Will Ripley, who's in Taipei, for us.

So -- so Will --

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Omar.

JIMENEZ: On this -- on this front, I mean, what do you make of -- I mean, it is incredibly rare to have a high-level Chinese official like this at an inaugural ceremony. What do you make of this?

RIPLEY: We'll, the vice president of China, it's a more ceremonial role, as opposed to having actual power. The real power in China lies in the Politburo. And Vice President Han Zheng stepped down from the Politburo a couple of years back.

But nonetheless, it is highly symbolic, and he is having executive- level meetings. He met with the vice president-elect, J.D. Vance. He's meeting with American business leaders, including Elon Musk, in this attempt by Beijing, by sending their highest-level official to ever witness a democratic transfer of power.

And that's -- the optics of that can't be overstated when you're talking about a communist country like China.

This is an effort by Beijing to try to reset relations that have been very rocky. Rocky towards the end of the Trump first term and also rocky throughout the Biden administration. And they're trying to encourage U.S. investment in China.

Also, there's certainly an effort to try to present the image that, with the now second Trump administration, Beijing and particularly Xi Jinping, can capitalize on a personal rapport with President Trump, who really values personal relations when it comes to international diplomacy in a way that other U.S. leaders haven't valued as much.

So, the fact that Xi Jinping and Donald Trump had a phone call on Friday might even be more significant than even Xi sending his vice president, because the two of them were able to talk about a range of issues.

President Trump has told his advisers that he would like to travel to China at some point in the very near future. And then, of course, it was an opportunity for Xi Jinping to directly remind the president- elect about Beijing's very hard-line stance on the self-governing democracy of Taiwan, where I'm reporting from right now.

So, the optics of this not particularly great for Taiwan at the moment, when you have the vice president of China there as an official invitee. And even though they've had to rearrange all of the -- the -- the seating arrangements, and basically, a lot of people who were going to be able to watch in an outdoor venue now are not going to be able to watch, because it's moving inside because of the cold weather. And that includes, by the way, Taiwan's delegation. They no longer have, as far as we know, at least, a seat at President Trump's inauguration, unlike China.

So, those optics are not particularly great for Taipei at a time that they're struggling with a lot of political turmoil back here in the Taiwanese capital.

When you have the president at odds with a divided legislative -- legislative body that is trying to slash the budget of defense, among other things, here in Taiwan, to under 2 percent, even though President Trump on the campaign trail talked a lot about Taiwan needing to really step up the amount of money it's spending on defense.

But Taiwan does have its soft power. You know, ace in the hole, if you will, which is -- which, of course, is the fact that it's the world leader in the manufacturing of semiconductors, including the most advanced chips in the world that are made by TSMC here in Taiwan.

So, that business relationship and the essential ties between Taiwan and the United States is certainly something that the Taiwanese delegation will be talking about in lower-level meetings, working- level meetings while they're in the United States to congratulate the Trump administration, whereas Beijing has their vice president there, and he'll be there front and center with all the cameras rolling much closer, at least visually and optically and also diplomatically, perhaps to President Trump himself.

JIMENEZ: And this, as we know, Trump has privately told his advisers he wants to visit China after he is sworn into office.

So, when you talk optics, for someone watching from -- from Taipei, obviously a very, very complicated dynamic that I don't see going away anytime soon, once this administration gets started.

Will Ripley, really appreciate the reporting.

All right. Much more to come on inauguration day here in the United States, including a closer look at some of the many executive actions Donald Trump is planning on day one. Our political panel will be back with me, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:45]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Omar Jimenez.

I'm going to return to our special coverage of inauguration day in the United States. Donald Trump will take the oath of office just hours from now in the nation's capital, to begin his term as the 47th president.

The swearing in ceremony will take place inside the Capitol Rotunda because of extremely cold weather. That hasn't happened since 1985, by the way, for Ronald Reagan's second inauguration.

Trump held a campaign-style rally on the eve of his return to the White House, where he told supporters he's going to waste no time fulfilling his campaign promises and plans to sign a flurry of executive orders and actions on his first day in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to stop the destructive and divisive diversity, equity and inclusion mandates.

The invasion of our borders will have come to a halt.

Tomorrow, everybody in this very large arena will be very happy with my decision on the J-6 hostages.

I will direct our military to begin construction of the great Iron Dome missile defense shield.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Let's bring back our panel: Republican strategist Katie Frost; CNN political commentator Maria Cardona; and CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston. They're all joining us from Washington.

So, as far as what we're going to see today, we do expect President Trump to sign a number of executive orders. He and his advisers have pledged to issue more than 100, as I just mentioned, concerning things like immigration, energy production, climate, TikTok, you name it.

But take a listen to some of how he describes what we might see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Oh, you're going to have a lot of fun watching television tomorrow. Somebody said yesterday, sir, don't sign so many in one day. Let's do it over a period of weeks. I said, like hell, we're going to do it over weeks. We're going to sign them at the beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: So, Katie, look, executive orders a lot of times in reality get bogged down in legal challenges. Don't happen right away, but a lot of them do. And so, what is the strategy here in doing so many up front and at once?

FROST: We'll, it's great to be back with you. You know, flood the zone. Get all in there. Do it now.

[00:35:03]

You know, I think about President Trump's second term, you know, this is what it is. But it's very rare other than Grover Cleveland, for anyone to have a four-year break between their terms. Right?

So, President Trump had his first act, if you will.

He had a four-year intermission to prepare for the second act of his presidency. So, he's had plenty of time to think through everything that he is going to do. And that is why I see you being so prepared and so ready to go on day one of this second term of his administration.

He's listed all these different issues he's going to address. He said immigration, energy production. There's a lot that the American people want him to focus on.

I will say personally, after being here in D.C. for this weekend, I want to submit one additional executive order. I want President Trump to get us back to what our Founding Fathers had and move the inaugurations back to march. Freezing in January and filling the city with a bunch of folks from around the country. Can we just get our inaugurations back to March? I think everyone would love that. That would make America great again.

JIMENEZ: We'll, I think on a -- on a bipartisan level, that might be an agreement, at least, for the weather this -- this inauguration day. But I don't want to put words in people's mouths.

Maria, I know you don't have high hopes for what Trump might say or do in office, but what do Democrats do? I mean, what is the organizing energy or strategy around an incoming Trump administration?

CARDONA: Democrats are already organizing around what we believe will be the unconstitutional executive orders, the ones that will inflict the cruelty and the pain across America's communities. Frankly, the ones that are all about mass deportation.

And Katie is right. This is on purpose. You have a "New York Times" piece that talks about how Stephen Miller is the architect of many of these so-called immediate executive orders, many of them focused on mass deportation. We know how xenophobic he is and how much he wants to really impose those executive orders, those anti-immigrant executive orders, to be able to start those mass deportations.

What's going to be interesting is to see how they actually go about doing it. We know that, in 2017 and in 2018, when they imposed the family separation, ripping babies from the arms of their mothers, there was a huge and immediate backlash by the American people that caused Republicans to lose the House in 2018 and to, frankly, was a part of why Donald Trump lost in 2020, as we'll.

So, I am very confident that Donald Trump will absolutely engage in overreach here, because he can't help himself. And what is concerning to me, though, is the pain and the cruelty that he will inflict while he's doing that overreach.

And that is what Democrats are going to be focused on. They're going to be focused on making sure that communities and immigrants know their rights, that they are, that they understand who they can call, that they understand their legal rights.

There's lawyers that are prepared all across the country, and all of these communities working with mayors, working with state elected officials, working with advocacy organizations to ensure that immigrants who are here legally are protected; to ensure that immigrants who have not engaged in any kind of criminal activity have a chance to make their case if they are rounded up; and to ensure that the images that I really believe, sadly, are going to be front and center of -- of families being separated and of children crying out for their moms and dads when they come home from school and they're not there, that those are transmitted on national television, so that the -- the American people see the kind of cruelty that this president wants to impose.

JIMENEZ: And look, while we haven't seen, you know, any of those images or, you know, any mass deportation effort just yet, you know, he's not in office. This is certainly something that -- that he has promised and leaned into over the course of his campaigning.

And, Mark, I want to bring you in on this point because, look, campaigning is very different from actually running the office.

And I wonder how you see the Trump administration sort of trying to -- to line up with what the Trump campaign promised on the trail. And if there are areas that you think they might have a difficult time trying to line up those two.

PRESTON: So, let's go back to the first term. Took four years for Donald Trump to understand how to become president, as it does every first-term president. He then has four years to try to get the office back. But not just himself, but all the folks that have worked for him, the -- the likes of Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, those kind of folks who, on day one, are going to go in and impose some of the -- some of these drastic things that Democrats are very much concerned about.

[00:40:02]

I will say this, though. Over the next 12 hours, there'll be a lot of pomp and circumstance. There'll be a lot of theatrics and what have you.

But when Donald Trump takes the stage and he says something, Democrats better believe it, because he will follow through on it. That is something that we've seen in the past. People did not take him seriously. And the reality is, is that he is serious. You know, he will do what he thinks he can get done as quickly as possible.

He says he's going to try to get through as many of these orders through tomorrow. There's a reason why. He's a lame-duck president once he gets sworn in. I know that Republicans don't want to hear that, but he is.

He has incredible amount of power right now, probably for the next eight months, nine months. But after that, he's going to fall into a midterm president, lame-duck president. So that's why he's going to try to get all of these things done.

And take this to note: tomorrow when he goes to the -- to the Capital One arena, he will be signing some of these executive orders. He will have already signed some of these executive orders inside the U.S. Capitol. That is going to be done to try to get some confidence and support from the American people, you know, across the country for his policies.

And he'll do it in a way that I guarantee you he will get support of the American people, certainly in the short term -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: We'll, he did say we're going to have a good time watching the proceedings. So, whatever that means, we will -- we will have to find out. Maybe it is making a show of the executive orders.

Katie Frost, Maria Cardona, Mark Preston, don't go far. We'll bring you back soon. But thanks for being here.

CARDONA: Thank you.

FROST: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. Still to come, Donald Trump is planning to crack down on immigration on day one of his new term as president. The preparations underway to enact his plans. We'll take you through them. That's ahead.

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[00:45:00]

JIMENEZ: Now, President-elect Donald Trump had vowed during his campaign that he would crack down on immigration, and now his aides are preparing to act as soon as he is sworn into office.

It includes plans to invoke a national emergency at the border, raids targeting undocumented migrants across the country, and negotiations for the return of the Remain in Mexico program that would require people to stay out of the U.S. while undergoing immigration proceedings.

CNN correspondent Valeria Leon explains how Mexico is preparing for Trump's immigration plans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the scene from the Mexico- U.S. border, just a few hours before Donald Trump takes office.

LEON (voice-over): Border cities such as Ciudad Juarez, where I'm currently standing, have been preparing for a mass deportation for several weeks now.

Twenty-five temporary shelters have been set up by the Mexican federal government along the border to receive deportees.

And in this city of 1.5 million inhabitants, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, also, some churches have expanded their spaces --

LEON: -- to give shelter and provide food and clothes to the migrants.

But nobody really knows what to expect from the new immigration policies.

LEON (voice-over): And most importantly, exactly how many migrants are going to be deported here to the U.S. border in the next days or weeks.

Despite the uncertainty, actions have already been taken to prevent --

LEON: -- or at least attend to an upcoming crisis as best they can.

Valeria Leon, from Ciudad Juarez.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Joining me now from New York is attorney and CNN opinion writer Raul -- Raul Reyes.

Thank you for being here.

Look, we are expecting a number of immigration actions. We went through some of them, but I'll go through them again, including Trump invoking a national emergency at the border as a way to unlock funding from the Defense Department for the administration's use.

He's going to designate a series of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. That is what is expected.

But I guess my question to you is, what are you expecting from a Trump administration on the immigration front, in reality?

RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: In reality, look, the president has a great deal of discretion that he can exercise over immigration matters.

So, from 12 noon on tomorrow, starting tomorrow, for example, President Trump, just as President Biden did, he could very easily reverse some policies with the stroke of his pen that -- that -- that existed under the Biden administration.

For example, he could revoke -- right now, ICE has a policy called the sensitive locations policy, which means that they don't go and conduct immigration enforcement actions in churches, hospitals or schools.

But Trump has pledged to undo that. And he can -- he can do so with the stroke of his pen.

He will also very likely tomorrow sign an executive order saying that he's going to restart mass workplace raids, which President Obama -- President Biden ended in 2021.

So, these are some things that he can put in place tomorrow. And that's just aside from some of his larger plans, like potentially ending birthright citizenship, the mass deportations, or even ending programs like DACA or humanitarian parole into the country.

These are all things that he has promised that he -- he wants to terminate, to stop. And as we've seen before in the earlier presidency, these are matters to be taken very seriously.

JIMENEZ: We'll, and, you know, on mass deportations, for example, we have seen at many points in the past where some deportation efforts at points get caught up in court, for example, and then they don't quite go through because of the manner in which they're being carried out.

Are there any potential legal issues you believe might become a major issue with at least some of what's being planned, as far as what's expected?

REYES: Oh, absolutely. Both sides, whether we're talking about the incoming administration or some of the president's foes, say immigration advocates have already been prepping for legal battles.

But here's the thing. Take -- take something like mass deportations. There are a lot of issues around the constitutionality of such efforts, about their legal -- the -- their legal grounds, about the potential for racial profiling.

But those type of cases and challenges can take potentially years to work their way through the courts, or maybe end up at the Supreme Court.

In the meantime, I can -- I can tell you we know people who are connected to the immigrant community know that, on the ground, the reality can be quite different.

Right now, there is so much confusion and anxiety among the immigrant community.

We're talking about a population of 11 million people within the U.S. That's roughly the equal to the population of the state of Ohio.

And it's more than the population of a country, say, like Austria or New Zealand. Those are the -- that's the number of people Trump is putting in his -- in his sights.

And although we will see these legal challenges wind their way through the courts, for sure, I think, unfortunately, we will also see on the ground a lot of people being subjected to arrest, detentions, potential family separations, and even some American citizens, particularly those of Latino or Asian-American backgrounds, being caught up in these mass sweeps of suspected undocumented people.

[00:50:28]

JIMENEZ: Yes. Look, we will -- I have a feeling we'll get a good clue as to what's ahead this week once some of these executive orders get signed.

REYES: Sure, sure.

JIMENEZ: If it happens as Trump has said it would. Raul Reyes, I've got to leave it there. But thank you so much for being with us.

REYES: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

All right. We'll be right back with more news. You're watching our special coverage of the inauguration of Donald Trump. Stay with us.

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[00:58:59]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back.

While Donald Trump plans to fulfill a lot of promises on his first day in office, he is almost certain to break one of his long-standing vows.

It's really implausible now that he will end the war in Ukraine within a day of being sworn in.

Sources tell CNN Trump has directed his aides to arrange a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the days after his inauguration. Trump hopes -- Trump hopes it will lead to an in-person meeting in the coming months to try to end the war.

Now, officials on Trump's national security team have been working on setting up the call for weeks, but it's still unclear when, or if, it may happen.

Meanwhile, a winter storm dusted Washington, D.C., with -- with snow on Sunday ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration.

Now, earlier in the week, Trump announced the ceremony would be moved indoors as forecasts warn of the coldest inauguration day since Ronald Reagan's swearing in for a second term in 1985.

Let's look at the temperatures. They will continue to drop heading into Monday, with freezing winds reaching up to 30 miles per hour, about 48 kilometers per -- an hour.

The mayor of D.C. has issued a cold weather emergency across the district, and the wind chill is expected to make the air outside feel like ten degrees Fahrenheit. That is -12 C.

Though the cold has moved Donald Trump's inauguration indoors, some traditions will remain. Sources tell CNN that President Joe Biden, with hours left in office, will write the president-elect a letter.

Now, four years ago -- now, that letter is essentially something that is -- that is customary. We typically see that with presidents going from one administration to the other. But four years ago, Trump left a letter for Biden on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, but decided to skip the swearing in.

Biden will also ride to the Capitol in the same limo with Trump this morning, as former President Barack Obama did in 2017. That follows a tea reception Biden will host for Trump at the White House.

I'm Omar Jimenez. I'll be back with more of our special coverage, looking ahead to Donald Trump's second inauguration, after this short break.

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