Donald Trump Promises “Orderly Transition” Of Power After Congress Finally Ratifies Joe Biden’s Victory
Donald Trump has now promised an 'orderly transition' of power to Joe Biden after four people died when his supporters stormed the US Capitol (PA)
3 min read
Donald Trump has conceded in his fight to prevent Joe Biden becoming President following violent scenes in Washington.
On Wednesday Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol building to try to prevent Mr Biden’s election victory from being ratified, with four people confirmed dead amid the violence.
Congress eventually declared the Democratic challenger as the official President-elect at gone 3am after the National Guard were sent it to take back control of the situation in Washington.
Shortly afterwards Mr Trump put out a statement via Dan Scavino, a White House advisor, his own Twitter account having been suspended for 12 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," the statement read.
"I have always said we would continue our 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!”
There has been speculation Mr Trump would not take part in the inauguration of Mr Biden on 20 January, with reports this week he may fly to one of his Scottish golf resorts the day before the event.
But his statement suggests after filing dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn the decision of the November ballot, he will no longer be contesting the result.
He was unable to relay the message through his own account though, after social media platforms temporarily locked Mr Trump's accounts after his initial response to the protests.
The president posted a video urging his supporters to go home, while also repeating claims of election fraud and telling them "we love you".
In response Twitter banned him for 12 hours and demanded he remove a series of posts, while also threatening him with "permanent suspension" from the platform.
The Twitter Safety account posted: "As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington DC, we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our civic integrity policy.
"This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these tweets. If the tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.
"Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our civic integrity or violent threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account."
Meanwhile Facebook announced it had assessed two "policy violations" on Mr Trump's page and had blocked him from posting for 24 hours, while YouTube removed his video message from the site.
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