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Inauguration Eve: Trump juggles work, play, preps to party

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2009, file photo, the University of Tennessee’s Pride of the Southland Band performs before an NCAA college football game in Knoxville, Tenn. The band will perform in its 15th presidential inaugural parade since 1953 on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, a decades-old tradition its band director said transcends politics and the nation’s divisions. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2009, file photo, the University of Tennessee’s Pride of the Southland Band performs before an NCAA college football game in Knoxville, Tenn. The band will perform in its 15th presidential inaugural parade since 1953 on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, a decades-old tradition its band director said transcends politics and the nation’s divisions. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File) FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2009, file photo, the University of Tennessee’s Pride of the Southland Band performs before an NCAA college football game in Knoxville, Tenn. The band will perform in its 15th presidential inaugural parade since 1953 on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, a decades-old tradition its band director said transcends politics and the nation’s divisions. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)

By Associated Press 3 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Juggling work and play on Inauguration Eve, Donald Trump filled his final Cabinet slot Thursday and headed to Washington for three days of festivities.

The president-elect was trading in his beloved private jet for a military jet to ferry him from New York to a city bracing for an onslaught of inaugural crowds and demonstrators numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, in a tweet, called Inauguration Eve “a momentous day before a historic day,” as security barricades and blockades went up around Washington in preparation for Friday’s swearing-in ceremony and all of the hoopla and hand-wringing that comes with it.

“We are all ready to go to work,” Pence said at a morning news conference. “In fact, we can’t wait to get to work for the American people to make it great again.”

Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said he’d be putting on his “favorite DHS jacket” and taking to the streets to inspect security preparations for the inaugural festivities.