Donald Trump has claimed his "beautiful" inauguration ceremony on Friday will draw record crowds to Washington.

The President-elect gave his prediction at a pre-inauguration dinner on Tuesday evening, which was attended by 147 diplomats and ambassadors, as well as future White House staff and donors.

Mr Trump had earlier tweeted "record numbers" will attend the three-days of celebrations in the capital.

His team have been posting adverts on Facebook and Twitter, encouraging people to attend the inaugural festivities.

The adverts say Mr Trump wants to "personally invite" people to Thursday's welcoming concert and Friday's swearing-in ceremony.

Christopher Geldart, the district's director of homeland security, says officials are planning for 800,000 to 900,000 people to attend the ceremony.

By contrast, 1.8 million people attended Barack Obama's first inauguration in 2009.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has said 28,000 officials will be involved in the security operation in Washington, including 3,000 police officers and 5,000 members of the National Guard.