My1sttoday: Trump: I won’t attend Biden Inauguration on Jan. 20th. On Friday Trump said he would not attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, a break with more than a century of tradition as he stews over his defeat.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted.
To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
There had been no indication Trump planned to attend, as up until late Thursday night he had refused to even acknowledge he would no longer be in office on Jan. 20. Advisers expect Trump will travel to Florida instead, and he is reportedly considering doing so a day before the inauguration so he can use Air Force One.
Pence is expected to attend the event in some capacity, a source said Thursday, though his office maintained he had not been formally invited.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden both attended Trump’s inauguration.
But Trump has spent the two months since Election Day refusing to accept defeat, instead stoking conspiracies about how the election was stolen from him. The situation came to a tipping point on Wednesday, when thousands of Pro-Trump supporters invaded Capital Hill, to protest the certification of electoral votes in Congress that would affirm Biden as the winner.
Trump in a video message released Thursday night, he finally conceded, for the first time since the November election. He also said he would focus in the coming days on ensuring a smooth transition to Biden administration.