European friends of Donald Trump have accepted invitations for a ringside seat at today's inauguration of the 47th President of the United States.
As Donald Trump is sworn in today at around 12pm EST (6pm CET) as the 47th President of the United States, European politicians will be listening attentively to his second-term inaugural address, while several of the his political allies will attend in person.
Trump's statements since his election victory on 5 November have raised concerns in Europe over the speed at which a ramp up of contributions from NATO member states will be sought and how quickly and at what cost a peace deal over the Ukraine conflict might come, on top of the pervasive threat of tariff hikes.
Donald Trump also stunned Europeans by announcing that he wanted to buy Greenland, a Danish territory, not ruling out the possibility of using force.
Although heads of state and governments aren’t usually included on the guest-list of the inauguration ceremony of American presidents, Argentina President Javier Milei was invited and will attend alongside Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa. Chinese President Xi Jinping was also invited but will be represented by Vice President Han Zheng.
In Europe, the leaders of the main European institutions have not been invited, but a large gathering of European right-wing politicians and MEPs is expected in Washington.
Italy’s Prime minister Georgia Meloni, who recently visited Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf club, is on the guest-list and confirmed Saturday she was coming. Former Polish Prime Minister and President of the ECR Mateusz Morawiecki, has said he will attend the ceremony, as well as Belgium’s Vlaams Belang leader Tom Van Grieken, Eric Zemmour, the leader of France’s nationalist Reconquête party, Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Santiago Abascal Spain’s Vox party president and Nigel Farage leader of the far-right Reform UK party.
Euronews has also the confirmation that 13 MEPs from The Patriots, the ECR and Europe of Sovereign Nation will attend the inauguration, including MEPs from Spanish VOX, Hungarian Fidesz, French Rassemblement National, German AFD, Czech ANO, Italian Fratelli d’Italia, Polish PiS, Dom i nacionalno okupljanje from Croatia and National Alliance from Latvia.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Viktor Orbán confirmed that the Hungarian prime minister had not been invited.
Silicon Valley moguls will unsurprisingly also attend Trumps’ inauguration, along with former US presidents, US senators and House members, foreign diplomats, such as the EU’s representative to D.C., Jovita Neliupšienė, and heads of state. X owner Elon Musk, who will lead US Department of government efficiency, will be there as well as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and bosses of Alphabet and Apple Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook.
200,000 people are expected to show up in Washington DC for the ceremony.
The inauguration day for the American presidents consists of several formal stages, from a service at St John's Church, Lafayette Square, a historic Washington DC church, to three inaugural balls throughout the city where the new president is expected to speak.
Musical performance will take place on the main event stage at the US Capitol, before the swearing-in of Donald Trump and vice president-elected J.D Vance as well as the inaugural address of the 47th president of the United-States.