As preparations ramp up for Donald Trump’s Inauguration, we’ve asked him if he might consider a visit to Dubbo.
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The Daily Liberal tweeted to the President-elect, congratulating him on his impending inauguration, and asking him to visit us and Taronga Western Plains Zoo during his presidency.
President-elect Trump will be officially sworn as the 45th President of the United States (POTUS) on Friday January 20 (Saturday morning our time) – more than two months after he was elected.
Australian viewers will be tuning in early Saturday morning to catch the official swearing-in ceremony in Washington. The theme of the country's 58th inauguration is the same as Trump's winning campaign slogan: “Make America Great Again”.
The Inauguration Day action kicks off at 2.30am AEDT Saturday when Trump heads to the White House to meet outgoing president Barack Obama. President and President-elect will leave for the Capitol together to attend the swearing-in.
At 3.45am Vice President Mike Pence will take his oath of office, followed by the main event – Trump’s oath of office – at 4am.
After swearing he will "faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", Trump will become 45th President of the United States. He will then give his inaugural address.
Thousands are set to line the street for the subsequent parade, but there could be more protesters than supporters.
Confirming Trump's historic standing as the least popular incoming president in history, separate polls for CNN and The Washington Post put his approval rating at just 40 per cent – compared with Barack Obama's 84 per cent in 2009. A Monmouth poll is even worse, putting Trump's approval at just 34 per cent.
And there's little for Trump to boast of when the polls drill down on issues.
While voter expectations are high for his handling of the economy, trade and terrorism, the proverbial hits the fan on a range of other policies – the Mexican border wall, 60-37 against; tax cuts for big earners, 61-36 against; withdrawing from the Paris climate deal, 56-31 against; junking the Iran nuclear deal, 46-37 against; banning non-citizen Muslims from entering the US, 63-32 against; and even on the vexed fate of Obamacare, Trump is in front by just a single point – 47-46.
Not surprisingly, the polls provoked a tweeted snarl from Trump Tower – “The same people who did the phony election polls, and were so wrong, are now doing approval rating polls. They are rigged just like before”.
No surprise either that if Trump's approval is half of Obama's as incoming president, crowd expectations for his inauguration are halved too – officials expect 800,000 to 900,000 to attend Friday's event, compared with the estimated 1.8 million who turned out for Obama in 2009.
And based on the bus parking figures – 400 for inauguration day and 1800 for Saturday's inaccurately dubbed the Million Women march – more than the previously anticipated 200,000 protesters will turn out. More that 30 groups have also sought permits to protest against Trump on inauguration day.
Regardless of how he’s faring in the polls, Trump’s a hugely popular man with 20.4 million Twitter followers – almost as many as people in Australia.
Will he even see our tweet, let alone respond?