After one of the most exhausting and divisive US presidential election campaigns in recent memory, former Vice President Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump to become the 46th President of the United States. Following his election defeat, outgoing US President Donald Trump has made false claims of a stolen election, allegedly incited a mob of his supports to storm the US Capitol, became the first president in US history to be impeached for a second time, and now, he has refused to attend president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony – breaking a century-old tradition to symbolise a peaceful transition of power between administrations.
If he follows through on his words of not attending the inauguration, he will become the first president in more than 100 years to boycott the successor’s scheduled inauguration.
According to the reports, Trump has no plans of delivering a farewell speech or even hold a final press conference. He is expected to leave for his beachside home in Florida just hours before Joe Biden takes over the White House, reported The Guardian.
If Trump boycotts the inauguration ceremony, he will be joining three other former presidents who snubbed their successor’s coronation ceremony. Here’s a list of outgoing president who skipped their successor’s inauguration.
John Adams was the first president to skip his successor Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration in 1801.
Like father, like son. In 1829, John Quincy Adams, son of former President John Adams, refused to attend the inauguration ceremony of Andrew Jackson
After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson took over the presidency. However, in November 1868 when the US elected Ulysses S. Grant as President, the rivalry between them was so bitter that Johnson declined to attend the inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant.
