In a significant historic shift, the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th U.S. president on Monday will be the first in America’s history to be attended by foreign leaders.

Traditionally, the presidential transfer-of-power ceremony in the U.S. had been a local affair attended by American VIPs across various walks of life and diplomatic heads representing their respective countries.

However, Mr Trump has broken the tradition and extended invitations to several former and present world leaders to directly grace the occasion of his second inauguration as the 47th American president.

According to U.S. State Department records dating back to 1874, a foreign leader has never attended a transfer-of-power ceremony. However, experts said the available facts might not be complete.

Some of the leaders invited by Mr Trump are already in the U.S., including Chinese President Xi Jinping, to be represented by Vice-President Han Zheng.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei has already arrived in the country. 

Mr Trump also invited Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, Daniel Noboa of Ecuador, Indian leader Narendra Modi and Hungary’s Prime Minister Gift Orban.

Others to attend the inauguration are India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Japan’s foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang party chairman Tom Van Grieken, Éric Zemmour of France’s nationalist Reconquête party, Tino Chrupalla of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Spain’s Vox party president Santiago Abascal, and Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party.