WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump spent his last full day in the White House mulling pardons Tuesday and President-elect Joe Biden was set to arrive in Washington ahead of an inauguration that his predecessor, in a final break with tradition, will snub.
Trump has not appeared in public for a week and, suspended from Twitter in the wake of his encouraging supporters to march on Congress, has been uncharacteristically silent.
There have been no call-ins to his favorite Fox News hosts, interviews with the networks, or speeches celebrating his stormy one-term administration.
In another first, Trump has yet to publicly congratulate Biden on his win, wish him luck, or invite him for the customary cup of tea in the Oval Office.
In one of his last acts before he flies to Florida from Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday morning, Trump is expected to issue scores of pardons, with speculation rife over who might make the list.
The latest indications are that Trump will not take the legally dubious step of issuing himself and his children preemptive pardons.
Outside the White House fence, central Washington has taken on a dystopian look ahead of Biden’s inauguration, swarming with National Guard troops and largely emptied of ordinary people.
The grassy Mall area, barred to the public, has been filled with some 200,000 American flags to represent the people who at any other inauguration would have come to witness history. Fifty six pillars of light will beam up to represent the 50 US states and territories.
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