Donald Trump Will Not Attend Biden Inauguration

Via Twitter this morning we get the news that Donald Trump will NOT attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Trump is the first president to ghost his successor in 152 years. The announcement represents just one more Trumpian break with the traditions of U.S. democracy which has always embraced a peaceful transfer of power. The news doesn’t come as much of a surprise in that he took 61 days to barely concede he lost the election. Vice President Mike Pence has indicated he will attend the swearing-in ceremony but an administration official told the New York Times he hasn’t received an official invitation yet. The Times also notes that only 3 presidents have declined to attend their successor’s inauguration: “John Adams in 1801, his son John Quincy Adams in 1829 and Andrew Johnson, a Democrat who sat out the 1869 inauguration after he was replaced in favor of fellow Republican Ulysses S. Grant.”