I am Ari Melba, and our special coverage continues right now. This is the inauguration of President

Donald Trump. He went from President-elect to President today, and we're seeing him now stepping out

there in a Washington, D.C. arena where you're seeing what is essentially the recreation of the

traditional area we would see outdoors outdoors where the president, the first

family, and other dignitaries watch what you're seeing now that's been moved indoors,

cited for the cold and reasons of safety, for the crowds, for this celebration.

Every new president has not only the inaugural address, but the parade,

and they have sort of rebooted the parade in this indoor presentation. I'm about to bring in

our guests because we are clearly in breaking news and rolling coverage today, but I want to

just mention what we are expecting is not just the parade in the pageantry, which we are keeping an eye on and watching, and we'll bring to you, of course, as we've been doing for the past few hours of coverage.

But we're also expecting a lot of significant news coming out of the next presentation. We expect President Donald Trump to both speak to address his supporters have gathered indoors. This will be his

third set of remarks today. But we also expect quite a bit of executive business, as he will ultimately

do a signing ceremony, which is a traditional thing, just in a different untraditional venue,

where we could be getting several, by some reports, even dozens of executive orders, whether that's through the course of

this signing ceremony or the course of the day. So we are actually awaiting both the continuation

of these inaugural festivities and a significant amount of potential news. So that's what we're

watching. Joining us now here to start our coverage is NBC News historian John Meacham. We should note,

in addition to many of his activities, including being a celebrated writer, he has also advised

former President Biden when Biden was in office. We want to mention that as part of our introduction,

and another longtime Washington observer and expert political columnist for Washington Monthly,

Margaret Carlson.

Welcome to both of you. When we get news out of this arena, we may go to it, as you both know.

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