President Joe Biden claimed in a December interview that President-elect Donald Trump is “the only president to ever avoid an inauguration.”

Verdict: False

Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Johnson all skipped their respective successors’ inauguration ceremonies.

Fact Check:

Trump blamed Biden’s “Open Border Policy” for two recent attacks in the U.S., including one where a cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, according to The Hill.

During a December 2024 interview with MeidasTouch, a progressive media outlet, Biden claimed Trump is “the only president to ever avoid an inauguration.”

“The only president to ever avoid an inauguration was the guy that’s about to be inaugurated,” Biden said when host Ben Meiselas asked him if he’d be attending Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

The claim is false. TIME Magazine reported in January 2021 indicates that in addition to Trump, Adams, Quincy Adams, and Johnson all did not attend their successors’ respective inauguration ceremonies. Adams skipped Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration ceremony in 1801 amidst political tensions in the U.S. at the time and following the death of his 30-year-old son, Charles, according to TIME Magazine.

Quincy Adams also skipped his successor, Andrew Jackson’s inauguration ceremony in 1829 due to political tensions. Adams was offended Jackson did not visit him ahead of the inauguration ceremony, prompting Adams to leave Washington, D.C. the day before the event, the publication indicated.

Jackson ran for president in 1828 after he believed he’d been “robbed of the presidency” in 1824. During the four-way 1824 election, Jackson won the popular vote, but none of the candidates received the majority of electoral votes, which forced the U.S. House of Representatives to decide the winner.

Johnson skipped the inauguration ceremony in 1869 after his political rival, Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency, TIME Magazine reported. Johnson, who’d been impeached in 1868, disagreed with his Congress on how to approach Reconstruction and wanted to run for president, but the “Democrats wouldn’t nominate him,” the publication indicated.

Likewise, according to the White House Historical Association’s website, Adams, Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Johnson, and Trump all “failed to attend the Inaugurations of their successors.” Similar to the other presidents, Van Buren did not attend William Henry Harrison’s inauguration ceremony in 1841.

Although Van Buren and Harrison shared a warm relationship, after Van Buren was informed by the then-Whig-controlled Senate Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies that “no position it will be perceived has been assigned to you,” he decided not to attend the ceremony. Van Buren’s decision not to attend the ceremony was also influenced by the fact that his son, Martin Van Buren Jr., was seriously ill at the time.

In addition, the same website indicates that Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Richard Nixon “did not participate [in their successors’ inauguration ceremonies] for other reasons.” (RELATED: Did Biden Pardon 8,000 People To Cover Up Administration’s Crimes?)

The New York Times reported Van Buren, Wilson, and Nixon also did not attend their successors’ inauguration ceremonies, though these instances “were not necessarily political,” according to the outlet. For example, Wilson “was not well enough” to attend the inauguration ceremony of his successor, Warren G. Harding, but accompanied him to the Capitol, the outlet reported.

Furthermore, Prof. David Greenberg, an American political history expert at Rutgers University, labeled Biden’s claim as “incorrect.”

“Biden is incorrect. John Adams, the incumbent president, lost a bitter election to Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and chose not to remain in town for Jefferson’s inauguration. Several of his successors did so as well. I am pretty sure that his son, John Quincy Adams, didn’t attend Andrew Jackson’s inauguration. Andrew Johnson skipped Grant’s. Wilson was ill when he left office and I think did not attend Harding’s inaugural. Nixon left the White House by helicopter before Ford was sworn in. There may have been others,” Greenberg said.

Snopes also debunked the claim. Check Your Fact has also contacted the White House and a Trump spokesperson for comment.