Although it’s been weeks since Joe Biden was projected to become the 46th president of the United States, the current POTUS is still refusing to concede, and is reportedly going to go so far as to boycott the inauguration to make his resistance all the more apparent.
According to NBC News , three people have confirmed that Donald Trump is considering using the day of Biden’s swearing-in to kick off his 2024 presidential campaign with a rally. And even if he doesn’t announce his bid that day, he still doesn’t plan on showing up for the inauguration.
Rumors that Trump will be potentially running for office again in 2024 have been swirling since as early as days after the election was called.
In early November, Axios reported that Trump had apparently already told some of his advisers that he was considering running again.
His 2016 campaign aide, Rick Gaetz, and Former White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, also publicly stated they fully expect Trump to launch another campaign for office in the next election.
However, this is the first time we’re hearing that Trump might actually kick off that new campaign on the same day his successor is taking the oath of the office.
According to those three sources, there is already “preliminary planning” underway for a campaign kickoff event to take place on January 20, 2021.
However, they cautioned that nothing is concrete yet, and Trump could still very well announce his intention to run again sooner than that date.
However, no matter when the actual campaign is announced, those sources claim Trump still intends to boycott Biden’s inauguration day.
In fact, they told NBC News the current POTUS doesn’t plan on inviting Biden and his wife to the White House for a visit, or even calling the president-elect.
When Trump won the 2016 election in a surprising victory over Hillary Clinton, then-President Barack Obama invited him to the White House to discuss transfers of power. The meeting between sitting presidents, vice presidents, and their successors is a time-honored tradition, one which Trump apparently is deeply reluctant to keep.
That being said, Trump wouldn’t actually be the first president to skip his successor’s inauguration day.
He would join a very small group of past presidents who have opted to miss the event as well, made up of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Johnson.
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Richard Nixon left the White House after his own resignation and did not make an appearance at Gerald Ford’s swearing in, either.
Biden’s transition team has said that Trump refusing to appear at the event will have no effect on their inauguration plans.
As NBC News reported, those officials said they didn’t expect a traditional transition of power, including an invitation to the White House, particularly given current pandemic protocols.
However, transition officials would plan for such meetings to take place outside of the White House anyway.
h/t: NBC News
