Trump to boycott Biden inauguration, Twitter permanently suspends president

President Donald Trump on Friday said he would not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration later this month.

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the inauguration on January 20th,” he announced on Twitter.

This also ‘provoked’ a permanent suspension order slammed on the US President by Twitter.

Trump’s decision to boycott Biden’s swearing-in ceremony comes after weeks of his refusing to acknowledge that Biden defeated him in the November 3, 2020 presidential election, US Today reports.

Trump finally acknowledged his loss in a video on Thursday, saying a new administration would take office on January 20.

But Biden said he won’t miss Trump and called Trump’s decision to boycott his inaugural “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on.”

“It’s a good thing he’s not showing up,” Biden said on Friday at a news conference in Wilmington, Delaware.

Trump is not the first outgoing president to skip his successor’s inauguration. John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson did not attend the inaugurals of the men who succeeded them. Richard Nixon left the White House after resigning and did not go to Gerald Ford’s swearing-in.

After reports on Thursday that Vice President Mike Pence was expected to attend the inauguration, spokesman Devin O’Malley tweeted: “You can’t attend something you haven’t received an invitation to.”

But a spokeswoman for Biden’s inaugural committee said Pence is “of course invited to attend the Inaugural.” She said the president and vice president traditionally do not receive formal invitations. Attendance is coordinated at a staff level “and that is taking place,” the spokeswoman said.

Pence and his wife “have yet to make a decision regarding their attendance,” O’Malley said Friday.

Asked if Pence should attend his inauguration, Biden said it was important to stick to historical precedence “as much as we can.”

“The vice president is welcome to come,” Biden said, adding he’d “be honored to have him there.”

Biden’s inauguration will be a scaled-down event because of the health risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Tickets to the swearing-in ceremony will be limited. The traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue will be replaced by a virtual parade that will be televised.

Meanwhile, Twitter has announced that it has permanently suspended Trump.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter wrote in a statement Friday evening.

Trump’s final tweet said he would not be attending the inauguration of Biden.

Hashtags for “TrumpBanned” and “Thank you Twitter” quickly rose to the top of the social media site in the wake of the permanent suspension, according to abcnews.go.com.

Hours after his suspension, Trump released a statement criticising the ban, and teasing a possible new platform.

“I predicted this would happen,” he wrote in part. “We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!”

“Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely,” he added.

Trump had attempted to post the same statement on Twitter, using the official @POTUS account, but the platform deleted the thread, saying users who are banned cannot post from other accounts.

The @POTUS account, rarely used by Trump himself over the past four years, will be transferred over to the Biden administration following his inauguration, the ABC News report adds.