Trump leaves White House, skipping Biden inauguration
WASHINGTON, United States — US President Donald Trump left the White House for the last time on Wednesday, skipping the inauguration of successor Joe Biden as the 46th US president in an extraordinary break with tradition.
Drawing a curtain on the most tumultuous administration of modern times, Trump is being ousted by a polar opposite with the Democrat Biden intent on charting a new course to tackle COVID-19 and unite a splintered nation.
A small crowd waved goodbye as Trump, 74, and First Lady Melania Trump walked a short red carpet and boarded the Marine One helicopter shortly after 8:15 am (1315 GMT), for the short flight to the air base where they will continue to Florida on board Air Force One.
"I just want to say goodbye," Trump told the gathering, calling his time in office "the honor of a lifetime."
Trump will be at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when Biden, a 78-year-old former vice president, is sworn in at noon on the US Capitol's western front.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take the oath of office at the very spot where pro-Trump rioters clashed with police two weeks ago before storming Congress in a deadly insurrection.
While a transition of power will occur much as it has for more than two centuries, this inauguration is unlike any other.
Official Washington has taken on the dystopian look of an armed camp, protected by some 25,000 National Guard troops tasked with preventing any repeat of this month's attack.
And with the pandemic raging, the general public is essentially barred from attending the swearing-in, leading to the unprecedented sight of an empty National Mall on Inauguration Day.
With the death toll soaring past 400,000, Biden on Tuesday led a powerful tribute to victims of COVID-19 as he arrived in Washington.
"It's hard sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal. It's important to do that as a nation," Biden said in somber remarks in front of the Lincoln Memorial, once more stressing the need to unite the country after Trump's chaos.
Trump snub
On the Mall's grassy expanse, some 200,000 flags have been planted to represent the absent crowds at the inauguration.
Trump broke days of silence Tuesday with a pre-recorded farewell video address in which -- for the first time -- he asked Americans to "pray" for the success of the incoming administration.
But Trump has yet to personally congratulate Biden, who first ran for president in 1987, on his win, and the 11th-hour message followed months spent persuading his Republican followers that Democrat cheated his way to election victory.
In one of his last acts before departing the White House, Trump issued scores of pardons to people convicted of crimes or facing charges, including several key allies.
Influential former Trump aide Steve Bannon — charged with defrauding people over funds raised to build the Mexico border wall, a flagship Trump policy — was among 73 people on a list released by the White House.
However, neither Trump nor his relatives were listed, amid speculation he could use the legally dubious tactic of a preemptive pardon to fend off future charges.
Former Trump fund-raiser Elliott Broidy was similarly pardoned, after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws.
The rapper Lil Wayne, who last month pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, and faced 10 years in jail, also made the list.
Tensions have soared on Capitol Hill, where the Senate is expected to put Trump on trial soon following his record second impeachment by the House of Representatives over the Capitol riot.
The spectacle will clash with the opening days of Biden's tenure, as the new president seeks to swiftly confirm his Cabinet picks and push through ambitious legislation -- including a $1.9 trillion rescue package.
'I'll get right to work'
"We don't have a second to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face as a nation," Biden tweeted late Tuesday.
"That's why after being sworn in tomorrow, I'll get right to work."
He plans to kick off his tenure by rejoining the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, according to aides, who said Biden would sign 17 orders and actions just hours after being sworn in, setting new paths on immigration, the environment, COVID-19 and the economy.
In first-day moves, he will end Trump's much-assailed ban on visitors from several majority-Muslim countries and halt construction of the wall that Trump ordered on the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration, the aides said.
To symbolize the new spirit of unity, Biden has invited the two top senators — Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell — and other congressional leaders to attend a church service with him Wednesday before the inauguration.
Overseas leaders weighed in to mark the end of a presidency which has deviated from orthodox American foreign policy.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani hailed the White House departure of "tyrant" Trump, saying "the ball is in America's court" to return to a landmark nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Tehran.
And Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the inauguration would "be a demonstration of the resilience of American democracy," as well as "the resounding proof that, once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House."
US President-elect Joe Biden unveiled plans Thursday for fighting COVID and injecting $1.9 trillion into a battered US economy, but already his ambitious first 100 days agenda is overshadowed by the looming Senate trial of his soon-to-be predecessor Donald Trump.
Biden promised "a new chapter" for the nation on the day after Trump became the first US president to ever be impeached twice, as the incoming Democrat sought to seize the narrative in a primetime address and get Americans looking forward again. — AFP
Photo: Angela Weiss/ AFP
Former US president Donald Trump says he expected to be charged over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol -- an indictment that would ramp up his legal woes as he makes another White House run.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is already facing criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith for mishandling top secret government documents after leaving office.
Trump said he received a letter from Smith on Sunday stating that he's a target of the probe into January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed Congress in a bid to prevent certification of Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.
"Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden's DOJ, sent a letter... stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6 Grand Jury investigation," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The 77-year-old Trump said he was given four days to report to a grand jury, "which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment." — AFP
New York police tightened security Monday ahead of a possible historic indictment of Donald Trump over hush money paid to a porn actress, with the ex-president calling for mass demonstrations if he is charged.
Only a couple of dozen Trump supporters attended a protest in America's financial capital on Monday evening though, as a grand jury weighs an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over the 2016 payment to Stormy Daniels.
Trump would become the first former or sitting president to be charged with a crime if an indictment is filed -- a move that would send shockwaves through the 2024 White House race, in which the 76-year-old is running to regain office. -- AFP
Senior Republicans Sunday echoed Donald Trump's claim that a looming indictment in a hush-money case would amount to political "persecution," while Democrats warned his call for protests could trigger a repeat of chaos his supporters unleashed at the US Capitol.
In an explosive announcement Saturday, the former president said he expected to be arrested Tuesday in connection with a grand jury inquiry into a 2016 payment to a porn star, allegedly to keep her from revealing a past affair with Trump.
On Sunday, he blasted the possible move as a "witch hunt" on his Truth Social platform, lashing out at the Manhattan prosecutor for "using the power of his office to persecute, indict, and prosecute a former president of the United States of America -- for no crime!" -- AFP
Former US vice president Mike Pence on Saturday said history would hold former president Donald Trump "accountable" for his role in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, US media report.
The remarks are likely to widen the rift between the former running mates, who have been at loggerheads ever since Pence refused to go along with Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and remain in power.
"President Trump was wrong," Pence says in a speech at the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington, a white-tie gala put on by journalists that draws top politicians.
"I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day. And I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable," Pence was quoted as saying by multiple media. — AFP
Former US president Donald Trump can be sued by police and others injured in the January 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol, the Justice Department says in a court filing.
In an official legal opinion submitted to federal court in Washington, the department says although a president has absolute immunity for his official acts in office, he can be sued for acts judged clearly outside of his official duties.
The opinion was submitted at the request of the court, which is hearing a suit by two police officers and 11 lawmakers claiming injury during the January 6 attack. — AFP
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