The current outgoing USA President will not attend the ceremony for the inauguration of the new president. Apparently also the outgoing First Lady will not be present.
Is the presence of both Presidents on Inauguration Day something regulated by the law or is it left to the common sense of each person involved?
Only two people are legally required to be present when a President is sworn in:
Past Presidents have attended the inauguration of their immediate successors out of courtesy, but they were not legally required to do so.
It's worth noting that the public inauguration is a largely ceremonial event and nobody is legally compelled to be present at the inauguration ceremony, not even the President-elect. A President-elect automatically becomes President at January 20th noon once taking the oath of office.
The recitation of the oath of office is the only component of the inauguration ceremony that is mandated under the Constitution. From Article II Section 1 Clause 8:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:– I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
However, it is possible for a President-elect to take the oath in a private setting, skipping the inauguration ceremony altogether. In fact, whenever January 20th falls on a Sunday, the inauguration ceremony will be delayed to the next day. The President-elect usually takes the oath of office on January 20th in private first. By the time the ceremonial public inauguration takes place on the next day (January 21st) the President-elect will have already been sworn in as President (on the previous day). This occurred during both President Reagan's and President Obama's second inaugurations.
Remember the inauguration of President Johnson.
Even the traditional bible was missing, they used a missal instead. Some witnesses are typical, too.
The President is a mere public servant, not a feudal king. Inauguration is like a ribbon cutting ceremony, which gives the politicians a chance to make speeches. In itself, it is meaningless.
Unlike the giving and taking of mutual oaths for a kingdom, there is a single oath for a President, and it is does not bind the President to any mortal, but instead to the Constitution. The President doesn’t exchange oaths with vassals which must have witnesses in order to avoid fraud.
The Constitution requires that prior to assuming office an Oath be taken, this is part of the eligibility requirements like age and citizenship. It does not specify who (or even if) else must be present or when the Oath must be taken. Given that there is an implicit “during my term of office” in the Oath, a two term president could easily argue that the first oath is still binding and doesn’t need to be renewed for a second term.
Having taken the oath, at the appointed time, with no ceremony required, the person becomes President and is able to (legally) exercise the power of the presidency.
To put it another way, Inauguration is like a victory lap in racing or a boxers hand being raised by the ref, it’s a way of showing off and make the fans happy, but isn’t in itself important. If the wrong driver takes the victory lap or the ref raises the wrong hand, that doesn’t change anything. Likewise if the President-Elect were to be unconsciously and undergoing surgery at noon, the office would still pass and the President would still be the President.
Or to put it corporate speak—all of the on boarding formalities have been duly executed, the Inauguration ceremony is just the walk around the office where the new hire gets introduced to everyone.
Aside from the person being sworn in and the person administering the oath, national security requires the presence of a military aide to give the new President control of the "nuclear football".
The football is a briefcase containing the equipment used to authenticate the order to launch a nuclear strike; the old President loses that ability on January 20, precisely at noon, and the new President's codes are activated immediately thereafter.
The Inauguration of 2021 will cause unprecedented problems because the military aide carrying the football will be at Trump's side (possibly in Florida) and won't be available to hand the briefcase to President Biden's aide.
Vice President Pence has his own aide with a copy of the briefcase; it's also possible that the White House Military Office has prepared an additional copy of the football.
Source: How Trump will hand off the 'nuclear football' to Biden
