- President-elect Joe Biden will open on Wednesday, meaning Tuesday is President Donald Trump’s last full day at the White House.
- Trump has spent the last days of his presidency hidden from public view, and with his approval ratings the lowest ever.
- Trump does not go to Biden’s inauguration and instead plans to steal the focus of the event, including flying early.
- Vice President Mike Pence has taken Trump’s place in many of the ceremonial tasks that presidents normally perform before leaving office, such as attending an inauguration briefing.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
President Donald Trump is starting his last full day in office hiding from the public and with the lowest approval rating ever.
President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration is expected to take place on Wednesday in a ceremony Trump said he would not attend, making him the first president since 1869 to defy tradition.
Trump also disappeared from public life in the last days of his presidency.
Since some of his supporters staged a deadly riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, the president has not made a single public appearance.
His advisers described him as angry and isolated at the White House, with CNN reporting late last week that advisers decided to limit his appearances to the media in case he deviated from the scripted comments about the riot.
Lawmakers protect themselves while protesters interrupt the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.
Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Trump’s attack and response saw him isolated from many in the Republican Party and in his own cabinet. Several senior officials resigned after the turmoil, leaving him practically alone in the White House.
The House accused him for the second time in history because of his role in inciting the Capitol crowd last week, and now he faces an impeachment trial in the Senate. North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer told Insider last week that Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, told Republican senators that they can vote however they like during the impeachment trial.
Trump will also step down from his deeply unpopular post.
A Gallup poll published on Monday found that 34% of Americans approve of Trump’s job as president – his worst performance in a Gallup poll during his entire presidency.
Gallup added that Trump’s average approval rating during his presidency was 41% – four points less than any other president Gallup had consulted with.
A Pew Research Center poll also found last week that his approval rating was 29% as he headed for his last week in office – a historic low.
Trump has made some statements since the attack, but has remained largely unusually silent.
Although his accounts have been removed from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, Trump has not yet turned to other platforms, such as the White House meeting room.
As The Hill noted, Vice President Mike Pence has taken Trump’s place in many of the ceremonial tasks that presidents normally do before leaving office, such as attending an inaugural briefing.
And Trump’s official schedule for his last full day in office mirrors the same vague entry he has had in recent weeks: “President Trump will work from early morning until late at night. He will make many calls and have many meetings.”
Trump’s official agenda for January 19, 2021.
White House Press Secretary’s Office
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As Tom Porter of Insider previously reported, Trump has some plans for the final hours of his presidency, but they seem primarily focused on undermining Biden’s tenure rather than spreading his own message or trying to control his legacy.
Trump is expected to issue about 100 presidential pardons or commutations on his last day, and he is considering a military-style expulsion on the day of his inauguration.
But Trump must have left Washington, DC, for his resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, even before Biden’s inauguration began. According to CNN, Trump’s goal is to avoid leaving the White House as a former president, and a source suggested that he did not want to borrow Air Force One from Biden.
However, his plans for the inauguration day paled in comparison to what was previously expected of the president: he had considered a rally with his supporters where he would announce a candidacy for 2024.
Trump’s advisers told The Hill that Trump plans to spend the immediate future with close advisers in Florida while considering his next steps.