Live updates: Follow the latest on Donald Trump’s inauguration
Donald Trump on Monday will be sworn into office for a second presidential term at his inauguration in Washington, with his hand raised in front Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Who is John Roberts?
Mr Roberts is the chief justice in the US Supreme Court.
He has served in the role since 2005 with a moderate conservative judicial stance.
He was nominated to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by president George H W Bush in 1992, but the Senate chose not to vote on confirming him. President George W Bush successfully appointed him to the same circuit in 2003.
The chief justice was nominated to the Supreme Court by Mr Bush in 2005 to fill a vacancy by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for her retirement. Mr Roberts was promoted to chief justice after William Rehnquist died in the same year.
What is his part in inauguration?
Mr Trump will take the oath of office at around noon local time in Washington. Mr Roberts will administer the oath of office in the US Capitol, right before Mr Trump delivers an inaugural address to the nation.
It will be the fourth time the chief justice has sworn a US president into office, and the second time he conducts the oath of office for Mr Trump.
How is the relationship between Trump and Roberts?
Mr Trump has castigated the chief justice as a “disgrace” for his role in upholding former president Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
And Mr Roberts presided over Mr Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020.
He also upheld Mr Trump’s ban on travel from several mostly Muslim countries in 2018, then ruled against Mr Trump on other immigration-related cases, including the administration’s failed effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census and wind down protections for about 650,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
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What does Roberts stand on a second Trump administration?
The chief justice, like many members on the court, has said nothing in public about Mr Trump and politics in general.
Mr Roberts did warn about a rising number of threats to the judiciary's independence in an annual year-end report on the judiciary on December 31.
His concern also touched upon calls for violence against judges and “dangerous” suggestions by elected officials to disregard court rulings they disagree with.
The report did not directly address what polling suggests has been a decline in public confidence in the judicial system broadly.
But Mr Roberts said he felt compelled to highlight several areas of “illegitimate activity” that went far beyond informed criticism and debate concerning judicial rulings, which he said “threaten the independence of judges on which the rule of law depends”.
Those areas of threats, he said, include a “significant” sharp rise in violent threats and online intimidation directed at judges, disinformation about court cases magnified by social media, and cyber threats posed by foreign state actors.
