Trump schedule for Monday empty as Biden’s shows president-elect to hold meetings, briefing and speech

US president’s light timetable comes after weekend in which he played golf on consecutive days

On the first weekday after Joe Biden was declared victorious in the US election, the president-elect and incumbent Donald Trump appear to have very different schedules.

In a press release, the Biden transition team revealed Mr Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris would on Monday receive a coronavirus briefing from its Covid-19 advisory board, before Mr Biden delivers remarks on how he plans to beat the pandemic and boost the US economy.

He has now announced his Covid task force team, which includes a former Trump administration official-turned-whistleblower. 

The schedule said he would then hold briefings with a number of presidential transition advisers.

Mr Trump in contrast has nothing on his official public schedule for Monday. “The President has no public events scheduled,” a White House press release said.

On Sunday, Mr Trump apparently spent his evening tweeting videos of Fox News clips in which presenters and pundits echoed his unsupported claims of voter fraud during last week’s election.

That followed a weekend which featured nothing on Mr Trump’s calendar bar two days of golfing, despite the fact the US is suffering a record surge in coronavirus cases.

Throughout the election campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly mocked Mr Biden for his lighter schedule and falsely claimed the former vice-president was locked away in his basement.

The role-reversal now the election is over comes as Mr Trump continues to refuse to accept the result, and is pushing for aides to exhaust all legal avenues in a bid to stave off defeat.

But Mr Trump’s estranged personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said he expected his former boss to evacuate the White House and ultimately argue his baseless case from Mar-a-Lago, his private residence in Florida.

“I would not be shocked if there is no concession speech at all. My theory is that at Christmas time he goes to Mar-a-Lago. I think he will stay there through the inauguration. I would not be shocked if he will not show up to the inauguration either,” Mr Cohen said.

“He cannot let the camera look at him and basically pull down the curtain and see the wizard standing beside. He is just a loser and it is killing him and, right now, what is going on in the White House is nothing but finger-pointing.”