Donald Trump has come close to conceding the presidency, acknowledging in a public statement “the end” of his term, and that he will leave office in an “orderly transition” on Jan. 20. The statement was issued after Congress affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory on Thursday.
Until now, Trump has refused to concede defeat, even as recently as Wednesday telling supporters at a rally near the White House, “We will never give up, we will never concede.” And as the president is currently locked out of social media, the president issued the statement through White House director of social media Dan Scavino’s personal account, rather than his professional account.
…fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”
— Dan Scavino🇺🇸🦅 (@DanScavino) January 7, 2021
Trump’s statement comes hours after violent insurrectionists stormed and attacked the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Four people have died as a result of the riot.
After Trump used Twitter to seemingly encourage extremists storming the Capitol, Twitter locked his account, and threatened to permanently ban him if three of his tweets are not deleted. “As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” Twitter wrote in a tweet. Facebook and Instagram has banned Trump for 24 hours.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” Trump’s statement begins. He then pledged to “fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted” — further perpetuating his false claims about election fraud.
“While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again,” he concluded.
That final self-congratulatory line is also up for debate. Trump will be the first president since 1932 to lose re-election, the House, and the Senate. Hardly what many would consider the “greatest” first term in history.
The statement made no mention as to whether Trump would attend Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
UPDATE: Jan. 7, 2021, 11:17 a.m. GMT This post was updated to include quotes from Trump’s speech to supporters outside the White House on Wednesday.