The very last tweet to ever hail from now ex-President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was this:
To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20.”
The tweet came on January 8th, just a couple of weeks before now-President Biden’s official inauguration into the White House. We all assumed that Donald was dipping out on the very serious, monumental, traditional transfer of power because he’s nothing more than a petty little man-child whose ego simply wouldn’t allow him to attend the ceremony marking the results of an election he was still desperately trying to overthrow.
And, while all of that is certainly still true, it seems that there was actually more to the story behind Trump’s refusal to attend than we were previously aware of.
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According to excerpts from ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl’s new book, Betrayal, — a tell-all that takes a deep dive into Donald Trump’s final days in office — reported on by both ABC News and POLITICO, the now-ex-president only made this official announcement after he learned that Mitch McConnell and other Republicans were allegedly planning to uninvite and bar him from the ceremony, due to fear that he would ignite more violence similar to January 6th.
Karl’s upcoming book claims Trump caught wind of a plan being concocted by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to ultimately disinvite him from the time-honored traditional event and even go so far as to bar him from attending, as they rightfully feared a repeat of January 6th’s violence.
“McConnell felt he could not give Trump another opportunity to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” ABC report Karl writing. “McConnell wanted to get a letter together from the top four congressional leaders informing Trump that he had been disinvited.”
According to Karl’s book, Trump only found out about the plan through House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who tipped the then-outgoing president off to scheme, leading to Trump’s very public announcement that he wouldn’t be attending.
“Trump apparently wanted people to think it was his decision alone to become the first outgoing president after an election to fail to attend an inauguration since Andrew Johnson skipped the inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant in 1869,” Karl writes, according to excerpts published by ABC.
In lieu of attending Biden’s inauguration, Trump made a dramatic departure from the White House on Marine One (while he could still use it) the morning of the event, that was supposed to be attended by his most loyal jockeys, such as McConnell and Mike Pence, but was left with a little audience as most were attending Biden’s inauguration.
Since this reporting came out, Trump has released a statement today railing against Karl, his upcoming book, and this particular allegation.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
