President Donald Trump to not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony

After much speculation, US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he “will not be going” to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration amid demands that he step aside for the last 12 days in office.

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Unsurprisingly, Trump’s statement drew a line through any idea that Trump might seek to spend his remaining moments in the White House peacefully transferring the power to his Democratic successor.

Democrats in the House of Representatives, who already impeached Trump in a partisan vote in 2019, said an unprecedented second impeachment of the Republican could be ready for a vote next week.

However, with calls also swirling for cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment and declare Trump unfit for office, it’s clear that the billionaire has no friends left.

Trump, whose incitement of crowds assaulting Congress on Wednesday capped relentless efforts to overturn Biden’s November 3 election win, finally conceded defeat on Thursday and appealed for calm.

“A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensure a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” Trump said in a short video.

However, the evidently reluctant concession, in which Trump failed to congratulate Biden or directly concede defeat, was too little, too late to calm outrage over his role in the Capitol invasion.

Biden, who won seven million votes more than Trump, as well as a decisive majority in the vital state-by-state Electoral College, will be sworn in on the Capitol Steps under huge security on January 20.

So far, the Democrat has carefully avoided weighing in on demands for Trump’s removal.

Impeachment of Trump could present the incoming president with an even more polarized landscape, further complicating the task of reuniting the country.