A Government website prematurely announced that President Donald Trump had left office on Monday – sparking a social media frenzy before the post was taken down. 

An official biography for the under-fire President on a US State Department page read: ‘Donald J. Trump’s term ended 2021-01-11 19:49:00,’ for a brief period on Monday before being taken down. Internet users then saw a message saying that there was a technical error.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a question on whether the incident – which also saw the same mistake made on Vice President Mike Pence’s page – was the result of hacking or a glitch.

It comes amid huge tensions in the US after many blamed Mr Trump for inciting the riots in Washington last Wednesday. Impeachment proceedings have begun against him and some are still continuing to call for the 25th amendment to be invoked to remove him from office, even as the chances of that happening appear to decline. 

The defeated President is due to be replaced by President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, January 20, but police are already preparing for armed protests by Trump supporters in the build up to the inauguration.

It appeared clear that Mr Trump – who remains president on the White House website – had not found an uncharacteristically subtle way to quit through a hard-to-find page, despite his social media use being curtailed by various bans. 

Mr Biden is due to be sworn in at noon (5pm GMT) on January 20 after defeating Trump in the November 3 election.

Lawmakers are moving ahead with a historic second impeachment after calls for Mr Trump to resign or his cabinet to remove him appeared to be ignored. 

Video footage shows the President encouraging the Capitol mob, who he labelled ‘very special’ and said he ‘loved’ to ‘fight’ for him, before they violently trashed a session of Congress during the certification of Mr Biden’s win.

He also told them to be peaceful and later to ‘go home’. 

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