President Trump said early Saturday there will be a “wild” protest in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, the day Congress is set to count electoral votes and affirm his loss to President-elect Joseph R. Biden.
Mr. Trump made the announcement on the social media service Twitter in a post touting an article written about a report White House trade adviser Peter Navarro recently published regarding the election.
“A great report by Peter,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,” Mr. Trump claimed. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Millions of more Americans cast ballots for Mr. Biden than Mr. Trump, paving the way for the president’s Democratic challenger to succeed him next month when he is sworn in on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.
However, first Congress will hold a joint session on Jan. 6, when its members will meet on Capitol Hill to count and confirm the results of the Electoral College and make official the election’s outcome.
Mr. Trump did not include any further information in his tweet about the planned protest.
Thousands of Trump supporters have participated in previous demonstrations held in D.C. to protest his loss to Mr. Biden in the weeks since the White House race ended with the president’s defeat.
While largely peaceful, those events have nonetheless resulted in numerous injuries and arrests.
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department told The Washington Times on Friday it is still investigating an incident that happened last weekend in which members of the group called the Proud Boys removed a “Black Lives Manner” sign from local church and set it on fire.
Federal officials, including Mr. Trump’s attorney general, William P. Barr, among others, have said they have seen no evidence of fraud occurring in the presidential election that could have caused a different outcome.
