US Congress certifies Donald Trump’s victory in shadow of 2021 Capitol attack

Good morning from a snowy Washington and happy new year from White House Watch! Let’s kick off 2025 with:

• The election certification

• Meta’s latest overture to Trump

• Private equity’s coming lobbying push

The certification of the 2024 election results went off without a hitch yesterday, cementing Donald Trump’s extraordinary White House comeback. The day’s events stood in stark contrast to the violent attack on the Capitol four years ago when Trump’s supporters sought to overturn Joe Biden’s win.

“CONGRESS CERTIFIES OUR GREAT ELECTION VICTORY TODAY — A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY. MAGA!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account before the proceedings on Capitol Hill.

With the shadow of the 2021 Capitol attack looming over yesterday’s events, tight security was in place for the joint session of Congress. But all was well.

Washington was quiet as heavy snow fell, subduing the city’s typical activity. “Snow shoes squeaked on the Capitol’s polished floors, as police walkie-talkies crackled with minor threats,” wrote the FT’s Alex Rogers.

Kamala Harris presided over the ceremony, which set in stone her election loss.

“One of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power,” she said after the certification. “I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it . . . otherwise, it is very fragile and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis. And, today, America’s democracy stood.”

But Democrats urged Americans to always remember the insurrection, deeming it one of the darkest days in political history.

“We should not forget,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. “We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it . . . an unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day.”

After the Capitol riot, some of Trump’s supporters were charged and convicted for their actions — but the president-elect, seeing them as victims of political persecution, has promised to pardon them.

What will Trump’s second term mean for America and the world? FT subscribers can join our webinar on January 23 at 8am ET/1pm GMT to put questions to our journalists.

Transitional times: the latest headlines

What we’re hearing

Private equity executives are licking their chops ahead of the Trump administration’s expected deregulatory push, standing ready to pounce on an opportunity to tap new, giant pools of capital. 

Historically, the $13tn sector hasn’t been able to play with certain money, including retirement savings. But it is preparing to lobby the Trump White House for approval to do so, which could unlock trillions of dollars for firms.

During Trump’s first term, he allowed private equity investments to be included in professionally managed funds. Now, the industry wants to take things a step further and allow investors to use tax-deferred defined contribution plans such as 401Ks to back the likes of leveraged buyouts, low-rated private loans and illiquid property deals, industry executives told the FT’s Antoine Gara.

The executives said such a deregulatory push was akin to “doubling demand” for the private capital industry’s various funds, which have generally been confined to institutional investors and wealthy people. 

The private equity industry sees a chance to open up their high-fee funds to a class of investors that have at least as much in assets as the sovereign wealth funds, pensions and endowments that tend to back industry giants such as Blackstone, Apollo Global and KKR.

As one Washington lobbyist put it:

We’ll look for opportunities to allow the average investor, if they want to, to diversify their portfolio and have the same access that wealthy individuals do to a private fund.

There are 4,000 publicly traded [US] companies. Most people are invested in the marketplace through those companies, but there are 25mn private companies out there.

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