President Trump won’t attend Joe Biden’s inauguration – STLtoday.com
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To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted. The move had been widely expected, as Trump for months falsely claimed victory in the election and promulgated baseless claims of voter fraud. His own administration said the election had been fairly run.
Vice President Mike Pence is still expected to attend the inauguration.
Biden’s transition team had no immediate comment on Trump’s announcement. But Jen Psaki, the president-elect’s incoming White House press secretary, said last month that whether Trump attended the inauguration was not top of mind for Biden.
Trump’s presidential legacy, by the numbers
Intro
WASHINGTON (AP) — Words matter. But numbers tell stories, too.
Presidential historians and others will plumb them as they assess President Donald Trump’s legacy,
Trump’s presidency is reflected in a broad range of numbers representing everything from the U.S. death toll during the coronavirus pandemic to the miles of his “big, beautiful wall” along the border with Mexico to the tens of thousands of tweets he sent during four years in office.
Some of the numbers that are part of Trump’s legacy:
Economic numbers
$3.1 trillion: The 2020 budget deficit
$3.1 trillion: 2020 budget deficit, the largest in dollar terms in U.S. history. Trump had pledged during the 2016 campaign to eliminate the gap between federal spending and revenue. Tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 contributed to the imbalance, and it ballooned further after Congress passed $2.4 trillion in economic relief earlier this year to help unemployed workers, business owners and others weather the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
$21 trillion: Federal debt in December, when it exceeded the size of the economy for the first time in history outside World War II.
President Donald Trump speaks during a bill passage event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, to acknowledge the final passage of tax cut legislation by Congress. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
15%: Drop in trade deficit with China
15%: Drop in trade deficit with China between January-September 2020 and a year earlier. This followed a 19% drop in 2019 to $308 billion, the lowest since 2013.
In this June 29, 2019, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, western Japan.
Health care numbers
322,000 and counting: US coronavirus deaths
322,000 and counting: Number of U.S. deaths attributed to COVID-19.
2: Coronavirus vaccines approved
2: Coronavirus vaccines — by Pfizer and BioNTech, and a separate one by Moderna — that U.S. regulators approved in 2020 for emergency use.
6: Coronavirus vaccines being developed and-or distributed under Trump’s Operation Warp Speed program.
0: Health care plan proposals
0: Comprehensive health care overhaul plans Trump introduced despite repeated promises to replace the Obama-era Affordable Care Act with a plan that would cover everyone at a lower cost.
Judiciary numbers
Graphic shows metrics associated with the judiciary, presidential pardons and executions during the Trump presidency
3: Supreme Court justices
3: Justices added to the Supreme Court, establishing a solid 6-3 conservative majority.
221: Judges confirmed
221: Federal trial-level and appeals court judges added to the judiciary.
In this March 5, 2019, file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks at the Capitol in Washington.
13: Federal executions scheduled since July
13: Federal executions scheduled since July, when the administration resumed putting inmates to death after a 17-year hiatus, making Trump the most prolific execution president in more than 130 years. Federal executions will be carried out until just before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Immigration numbers
Graphic shows with numbers the impact of the Trump presidency on immigration.
450: Miles of border wall
450: Miles of Trump’s “big, beautiful” steel wall along the U.S.-Mexico border expected to completed by year’s end.
315: Golf outings
315: Days Trump has visited a golf course as president, according to Factba.se, a data analytics company.
3: Meetings with Kim Jong Un
3: In-person meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (in Singapore, Vietnam and the Korean demilitarized zone).
In this June 30, 2019, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump prepare to shake hands at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
82: Environmental, public health rollbacks
82: Number of Trump administration environmental and public health rollbacks tracked on Harvard University’s rollback tracker.
1 billion: Barrels of oil and gas pumped from federally managed lands in 2019 as the administration sped permits and opened wilderness and other areas to the industry.
President Donald Trump shows off an memorandum on protecting Florida coastline from offshore drilling after delivering remarks on the environment at Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, in Jupiter, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
203: Days without a defense secretary
203: Days the Pentagon operated without a Senate-confirmed defense secretary, the longest stretch in the history of the office.
4: Men who served as acting secretary of defense, the most in any administration.
In this Oct. 23, 2018 file photo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks beside President Donald Trump, during a briefing with senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington.
39%: Trump’s average approval rating
39%: Trump’s average approval rating among American adults in AP-NORC polls over the course of his presidency. Assessments of Trump’s performance were remarkably stable, compared with his recent predecessors, ranging from a low of 32% to a high of 43% in AP-NORC polls.
$135 billion: Growth in defense budget
$135 billion: Expected growth in the defense budget under Trump. President Barack Obama’s final defense budget for 2017 totaled $605 billion; Trump’s final defense budget for 2021, approved by Congress in December, totaled $740 billion. Trump said he planned to veto the bill for unrelated reasons, but Congress had enough votes to override a veto and enact the bill over his objections.
4: International agreements exited
4: International agreements Trump pulled the U.S. out of: Iran nuclear deal, Paris climate agreement, Open Skies Treaty and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
418: Visits to Trump-owned properties
418: Days Trump has visited a property he owns, according to Factba.se.
Marine One, carrying President Donald Trump, departs Mar-a-Lago, Friday, Jan. 3, 2020, in Palm Beach, Fla.
1: New branch of US military
1: New branch of U.S. military: the Space Force.
Chief of Space Operations at US Space Force Gen. John Raymond, left, and Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman, right, hold the United States Space Force flag as President Donald Trump walks past it in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
25,000 and counting: Tweets
25,000 and counting: Tweets, including original messages and retweets, sent by Trump since he took office on Jan. 20, 2017, according to Factba.se.
Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed reporting from Washington.
