The Trump campaign's "dream" for Inauguration Day would involve television networks sharing a split-screen between Joe Biden taking the presidential oath on the steps of the Capitol during a mostly virtual event while a then-outgoing President Donald Trump is shown holding a huge rally in Florida where he announces his 2024 campaign, Axios founder Mike Allen said Monday.
"The presidential plane is Air Force One, as long as the president is aboard it," Allen said on CNBC's "Squawk Box," citing a report posted through Axios Sunday. "The one plan they're talking about inside is before noon, while he's still president, before Joe Biden takes the oath, he'll take Marine One, take Air Force One to Florida and do the rally."
Allen said he's asked people "very close" to Trump if there is any chance the president will do "something graceful" on Inauguration Day, and he's "Yet to find somebody who will predict that."
He added that TV executives are telling him that there is "zero chance" that there would be a split-screen between a Trump rally and the inauguration.
"There's a new president, he's taking the oath," said Allen. "Ex-President Trump can hold his rally if he wants. There ain't going to be a split-screen at high noon."
Either way, Allen said Trump will present a challenge for Biden.
"There has never been an ex who was out there constantly heckling," said Allen. "With President (Barack) Obama and President George W. Bush, President (Bill) Clinton, all of them laid low and were mostly quiet. There are no signs that the president has this in mind."
According to Axios' reporting, if Trump holds a rally during a Biden inauguration, it would allow him to immediately announce a 2024 campaign while setting up the president as Biden's "critic-in-chief" for the next four years.
Trump would also be able to escape protests by flying off from the South Lawn to Florida which would allow him the avoid having to welcome Biden to the White House or sitting at the inauguration while the Democrat is sworn in, the report said.
The Trump campaign has declined to comment on the president's Inauguration Day plans.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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