US President Donald Trump has accused Twitter of conspiring “to silence me” after the social media platform permanently suspended his account, claiming the US leader is too dangerous to use the platform.

After a "close review" of tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account, "we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said.

The unprecedented move, which severs Trump from his 88.7 million followers, is an astounding setback for the president in the chaotic waning days of his current administration.

With his presidency appearing to implode, Trump signalled a final, unrepentant display of division by announcing - in his final tweet before the ban - that he will skip the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20.

"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going," he tweeted.

Biden responded this was "a good thing", branding Trump an "embarrassment."

However, Biden showed how wary he is of the growing rush to impeach Trump - and deepen the nation's political divisions - over his incitement of crowds who stormed Congress on Wednesday.

"That is a judgment for the Congress to make," Biden said, adding that the "quickest" way to get Trump out was for him and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to take over in 12 days.

"I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and to get our agenda moving as quickly as we can."

Two days after Trump sent a mob of followers to march on Congress, his presidency appears to be in freefall, with allies walking away and opponents sharpening their teeth.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned that Democrats will launch impeachment proceedings unless Trump resigns or Vice President Mike Pence invokes the 25th Amendment, where the cabinet removes the president.

"If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action," Pelosi wrote.

In a jaw-dropping moment, Pelosi revealed she had spoken Friday with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley about "preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike."

"The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people," Pelosi wrote.

House Democrats, who already impeached Trump in a traumatic, partisan vote in 2019, said the unprecedented second impeachment of a president could be ready next week.

- Too little, too late –

Trump, whose actions Wednesday capped his relentless efforts to overturn Biden's November 3 election win, made a speech on Thursday and appealed for calm.

"A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power," Trump said in a short video.

However, the evidently reluctant concession, in which Trump failed to congratulate Biden or directly admit defeat, was too little, too late to calm outrage over his role in the Capitol invasion.

- Government exit –

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos became the second cabinet member to quit, after Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, telling Trump in a letter that such "behavior was unconscionable for our country."

Multiple lower level officials have also left. According to reports, the only reason the trickle hasn't turned into a flood is the decision by senior figures to try and maintain stability during the transition to Biden.

Trump, however, appears to have lost the grip he once exercised on both the Republican Party and his own staff.

Speaking to CNN, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who served as Trump's chief of staff for 18 months, said the cabinet should consider the 25th Amendment but believed the president had already been put into a box.

"He can give all the orders he wants but no one is going to break the law," Kelly said.

- Trump banned, but not "Ayatollah" –

With the president muted, son Donald Trump Jr took to Twitter to call the platform's move "absolute insanity."

While his father is banned, "the ayatollah, and numerous other dictatorial regimes can have Twitter accounts with no issue despite threatening genocide to entire countries and killing homosexuals etc," Trump Jr steamed.

Founder of communist China Chairman "Mao would be proud," he said.

In a blog post Twitter explained that the suspension was based on numerous factors, such as evidence that plans for future armed protests were already proliferating on and off Twitter, "including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021."

AFP, Mizzima