Trump to be sworn in as 45th US president Friday

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States Friday -- capping his improbable journey to the White House and beginning a four-year term that promises to shake up Washington and the world.

An estimated 800,000 people will gather on the National Mall in the center of the nation´s capital to celebrate a man whose short 19-month political career has defied all predictions, and many norms.

When Trump descended the escalators of his glitzy New York tower in June 2015, his run for office was dismissed and even mocked.

But shortly before midday Friday, Trump will place his hand on Abraham Lincoln´s bible, recite the oath of office on the steps of the Capitol and become the most powerful man on earth.

In the primaries, he dominated a crowded Republican presidential field with bareknuckle rhetoric and star power. He rode that same wave of anti-elite sentiment to victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election.

At 70 years of age, he is the oldest man ever to begin work in the Oval Office.

But the real estate mogul and one-time television reality star is also a political neophyte -- he will be the first president never to have held elected office, served in the government or the armed forces.

For his supporters, like Jake, a Californian who traveled to Washington for the inauguration, that is a central part of Trump´s appeal.

"It honestly feels like we won the American Revolution again," he said. "I really feel like we´ve taken back our culture, we´ve taken back our country.

"We´ve really been under attack from a lot of the establishment on both sides of the aisle -- we´ve been under attack from the media, from the celebrities."