Donald Trump refuses to show his face at Joe Biden’s inauguration

Donald Trump has confirmed that he will not attend the inauguration of President Elect Joe Biden later this month.

In a short tweet following his reinstatement on the social media site Twitter, Mr Trump told followers: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

The revelation means Mr Trump will become the first sitting President in more than 150 years to skip his successor’s swearing-in ceremony.

The highly public snub comes after supporters of the outgoing President violently stormed the US Capitol building in Washington D.C. on Wednesday afternoon during a joint session of Congress.

The extraordinary event, which left five people dead, including one police officer, was condemned by President Elect Joe Biden, who called it “an assault on the Citadel of Liberty”.

Reading from a teleprompter on Thursday, Mr Trump finally condemned the incident as “heinous”, after previously telling the rioters that he “loved” them.

Earlier on Wednesday, the President had addressed thousands of his supporters, including those who went on to ransack the Capitol, outside the White House.

There, he repeated baseless claims that the presidential election held in November 2020 was “stolen” from him by the Democratic party using voter fraud and suppression.

The highly public snub comes after supporters of the outgoing President violently stormed the US Capitol building in Washington D.C. on Wednesday afternoon during a joint session of Congress. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

In reality, Mr Trump lost to Mr Biden by more than 7 million votes.

President Trump has since agreed to facilitate a peaceful transition of power to the new administration.

Mr Biden has not commented on his predecessor’s decision not to attend his inauguration.

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