Lionel Barber is former editor of the Financial Times and chairman of the Tate art galleries. He is author of "The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times."
On Jan. 20, 2021, for the first time since Andrew Johnson’s snub in 1869, an outgoing U.S. president did not attend the inauguration of his successor, in this case Joe Biden. Donald Trump's refusal to abide by convention is a dismal coda to a presidency blackened by the coronavirus pandemic, impeachment for an unprecedented second time and an insurrection incited by the commander in chief himself.
