room s-216 (12. 161)

Even in the era of modern travel, no United States presidential inauguration ceremony have been attended by foreign heads of state, an honour or onus accorded to the respective diplomatic corps of embassies by tradition. While RSPVs are still pending for this sixtieth event invitees include the Chinese president Xi, El Salvadorian president Nayib Bukele, Georgian president Salome Zourabichvilli, Argentine president Javier Milei as well as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, Benjamin Netanyahu and AFD party co-chair Alice Weidel have been invited—the office of Olaf Scholz confirming the chancellor’s presence was not requested. Russian spokesmen acknowledge the same for Putin. While Trump says he also did not invite Zelenskyy, but would welcome him if the Ukrainian president showed up. After the public administering of the oath of office and address at noon on the steps of the Capitol, the president will withdraw to the Capitol’s President’s Room for a portrait and to sign transition documents. The ornate chamber was added in 1859 as a hot-desk in the senatorial wing as an office of convenience for the president to sign last minute legislation into law at the end of a congressional session and for the upper chamber to discharge its constitutional responsibilities when it comes to advising on treaties and nominations. Once executive terms became staggered with respect to congress in the 1930s, this formal function was rendered effectively obsolete and only has seen occasional use by the commander-in-chief, presently a venue for senate press-conferences and granted supreme court chief justices during the impeachment trials of Clinton and Trump. Before Trump’s 2017 waiving the waiting period for former military officers to serve in the cabinet that allowed retired Marine Corps General James Mattis’ nomination to be approved, the room was last used for its intended purpose in the Johnson administration for signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.