Washington: US President Donald Trump has released a farewell video, touting what he described as the success of his “America First” platform and telling his supporters that “the movement we started is only just beginning”.
Trump, who will leave office on Wednesday but will not attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, acknowledged in the nearly 20-minute video that a new administration would be sworn in this week.
“We extend our best wishes,” he said. “And we also want them to have luck. A very important word.
“Now, as we prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning,” he said.
Trump, who has maintained his false claims that November’s presidential election was “stolen” from him amid widespread voter fraud, described himself on Tuesday as “the only true outsider ever to win the presidency”.
He only acknowledged he would not serve a second term as president on January 7, a day after his supporters stormed the US Capitol as Congress met to certify Biden’s victory. The incident left five dead.
Trump has still not explicitly acknowledged that he lost to Biden.
In the video released on Tuesday, Trump condemned the violence on Capitol Hill, saying “all Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol”.
“Political violence is an attack on everything we cherish as Americans. It can never be tolerated.”
Trump has been accused of egging on his supporters in a rally shortly before the Capitol breach. In a video message amid the chaos, Trump told supporters to go home, while saying “We love you” and again repeating his baseless allegation that the election had been “stolen”.
