Now that Donald Trump has won the elections in the United States by obtaining more than 270 electors, there are some stages that will have to be respected in the coming months to arrive at the formal assumption of office and the start of his mandate, which will be on the 20th January 2025.
First of all, in order to be formally defined as “president-elect” (even if the media will start calling him that beforehand) Trump will have to wait until December 17thwhen the electors will meet in the so-called electoral college (electoral college) to formally express the president and vice president of the United States.
The votes of the electors, we remember, are those thanks to which the presidency of the United States is obtained: the election is won by the candidate who reaches 270. The electors are often considered as “points” that each candidate must obtain, but they are actually natural persons, chosen by the electoral committees of the parties in the individual states (usually they are local politicians, activists or locally known people). They are not constitutionally bound to vote for the party to which they are connected, but in fact it always happens. States will have up to a week in advance, theDecember 11thto count all the votes and resolve any disputes relating to the selection of its electors.
– Read also: How to elect a president of the United States
The electoral college is the body that brings together the electors chosen by the citizens' vote. It does not meet physically: the electors gather in their respective states on the Tuesday following the second Wednesday of December (this year, precisely, December 17), vote for a candidate for president and one for vice president and then communicate their opinion to the Senate. choice.
However, even before the certification of the vote, the process of transition of power will begin. The president-elect has access to funds and offices, and begins to receive similar treatment to that of the incumbent president: among other things, he receives daily updates from the intelligence services. He also establishes a “transition team” that should handle the handover from the old administration, and begins to form his government: the appointments will then have to be ratified by the Senate after taking office.
Il January 3, 2025 the new Congress will meet for the first time, made up of the new representatives and senators elected on November 5, and the new speaker of the House will be chosen.
Il January 6Finally, the Congress will meet in plenary session to count the votes of the 538 electors and certify the winner. It was this certification process that Donald Trump supporters tried to stop on January 6, 2021.
Donald Trump will be inaugurated in a ceremony in front of the Capitol, in Washington DC, on January 20th: it is the so-called “inauguration day”, the day on which the president-elect swears allegiance to the nation, and the day on which the presidential mandate officially begins.
It is almost always held on January 20th, unless it falls on a Sunday: in that case a private oath is always held on the 20th, and a public one on the 21st, therefore the following Monday. The swearing-in – which in films and TV series almost always takes place on the Bible, although it is not obligatory – is attended by, among others, members of Congress, Supreme Court judges, various high officials, military officers and former presidents. The formula used for the oath is always the same, and is present in the Constitution: having a legal value, anyone who gets it even slightly wrong is forced to start over. After the oath, the president normally gives a short speech to the nation. Then, he accompanies the president and the first lady exiting on a helicopter that will escort them away from the Capitol.
