Pray for Biden’s team, says Trump in farewell video

WASHINGTON: Outgoing US President Donald Trump on Tuesday wished the incoming administration of Joe Biden “luck” and said he would be praying for its success.

But Trump could still not bring himself around to name Biden as president and congratulate him directly.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump was to leave the White House on Wednesday morning for their Florida resort, with a stopover for a farewell at a military base outside Washington, DC.

They were not staying to either to attend Biden’s inauguration or receive him and his wife at the White House as has been a transfer-of-power ritual.

“This week, we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous,” Trump said in a recorded video farewell address. “We extend our best wishes, and we also want them to have luck - a very important word.”

The outgoing president then went on to claim overwhelming success in what he had set out to achieve. “With the support and prayers of the American people, we achieved more than anyone thought possible. Nobody thought we could even come close,” he said.

The president, who divided Americans on numerous issues, went on to claim that his “agenda was not about right or left, it wasn’t about Republican or Democrat, but about the good of a nation, and that means the whole nation”.

Trump may be leaving town, but not politics. The Wall Street Journal has reported he is thinking of floating a new political party, and has discussed it with some associates. He reportedly has a name for it Patriot Party.

It was not immediately clear if it was this new party he had in mind when he said in his farewell address, “I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning.”

Trump is still polling well among Republicans and retains his grip on the party’s base, but political pundits wonder if that will last long. He is leaving office as the only American president to be impeached twice.

Party seniors have already begun distancing themselves from him and his legacy tainted indelibly by the January 6 riot at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

“The mob was fed lies,” said Mitch Mcconnell, the top Republican in the Senate, on the floor of the chamber on Tuesday. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”