Washington: Donald Trump has left the White House together with Barack Obama in a motorcade to the Capitol to be sworn in as the 45th US president, signalling a bracing change in American leadership.
Mr Trump and Mr Obama rode in the presidential limousine, while the incoming and outgoing first ladies followed in another limo, in keeping with tradition on a day filled with familiar rituals designed to ease the transfer of power.
Mr Obama and his wife, Michelle, hosted the Trumps for morning tea at the White House before the motorcade, another custom of the day.
The Obamas greeted the Trumps on the White House's North Portico. Mr Obama offered Mr Trump a handshake. Mr Trump gave Michelle Obama a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Melania Trump presented the outgoing First Lady a box wrapped in Tiffany blue.
Mr Trump, 70, the nation's first billionaire president and a former reality-TV star, comes to power presenting himself as the champion of working-class, white Americans who rejected Mr Obama and his ally Hillary Clinton.
His inauguration on Friday amounts to a mirror-image reversal of Mr Obama's rise eight years ago, itself a repudiation of the Iraq War and President George W. Bush by a coalition of young, female, minority and liberal voters.
Even as Mr Trump has defied convention with his reflexive, ubiquitous use of Twitter to excoriate critics and wage partisan warfare during the post-election transition period, he has embraced the pomp and tradition of Inauguration Day.
Tens of thousands of people began assembling on the National Mall in the early morning hours, though crowds appeared to be notably smaller than for Mr Obama's two inaugurations. Trains on Washington's subway system, Metro, were largely uncrowded and traffic in the city was light. Inauguration Day is a holiday for most federal workers.
There was a heavy security presence in the Capitol, with parked buses, dump trucks and humvees blocking intersections downtown. Police and soldiers patrolled Metro stations in the vicinity of the Mall. There were scattered protests around the city by activists for the Black Lives Matter movement, gay rights and women's rights, and others.
Television networks broadcast footage of protesters dressed in black overturning garbage cans and smashing the windows of businesses about three blocks from the White House.
Prayer service
Like past presidents-elect, Mr Trump spent the night before his inauguration at the historic Blair House, a quick walk from the White House. He attended a morning prayer service at St John's church, known as the President's Church, across Lafayette Square from the White House. The Trumps are to attend three inaugural balls in the evening.
Minutes before the Trumps arrived for tea with the Obamas, painters walked in to the White House West Wing carrying gray buckets, as workers rushed through a carefully orchestrated rapid turnover of the presidential residence from one tenant to the next.
Mr Obama walked from the West Wing along a colonnade connecting to the residence, followed by Vice President Joe Biden. Asked if he felt nostalgic, Mr Obama replied, "Of course."
The president left a letter for Mr Trump in the desk of the Oval Office, as is tradition for the outgoing chief executive, Mr Obama spokesman Eric Schultz said. He declined to provide a copy of the letter.
Mr Trump invited Christian and Jewish clergy to speak at the inauguration: Reverend Franklin Graham, the Southern evangelical and son of Billy Graham; Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles; and Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, an African-American pastor from Detroit.
Dozens of Democratic US lawmakers planned to boycott Mr Trump's inauguration, and law enforcement prepared for protests throughout the day and the weekend. Mr Trump's advisers hope his opening remarks as president will calm and unify the nation.
Mr Trump has pledged to overturn or revamp almost all of Obama's policies – on health care, US relations with Russia, China and European allies, his counter-terrorism strategy and environmental protections. He also has pledged to shape a more conservative Supreme Court over time.
Former presidents and their spouses always are invited to inaugurations, but the tradition carried extra poignancy this year. Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara, fellow Republicans who publicly refused to back Mr Trump, are hospitalised and were be absent. Mr Trump's general election rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, was present.
Bloomberg