Donald Trump spoke to a small group of supporters at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday morning, minutes after leaving the White House and hours before Joe Biden will be sworn in as his successor. Even in his final moments in power, Trump appeared to leave the door open to another run for the presidency, pledging, “we will be back in some form.”
Trumps departure caps a chaotic and controversial one-term presidency, but one that he chose to position as a period of unmitigated success.
“This has been an incredible four years,” Trump said. “We’ve accomplished so much together.”
“What we’ve done has been amazing by any standard,” he added, ticking off a list of accomplishments that included his work to bolster the military and the creation of Space Force. “We’ve left it all, as the athletes would say, we’ve left it all on the field. In a month when we’re sitting in Florida — we will not be looking at each other saying ‘If we’d only worked harder.’ You can’t work harder.”
The president received a 21-gun salute shortly before making his remarks.
Trump is flying to Mar-a-Lago, the private club he owns in Palm Beach, Florida. Family members, such as daughter, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, were in attendance at Joint Base Andrews, and looked on as the president prepared to board Air Force One, while songs like Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” blared over the loudspeakers.
It was one of the final acts of Trump’s tumultuous tenure, one marked by constant tweeting and wall-to-wall media coverage, as well as racial tension, recession, and a global pandemic that has upended daily life. That was all before Trump’s heated rhetoric about election fraud helped incite an insurrection attempt. Supporters of the president credit Trump with a booming pre-pandemic economy, as well as tax cuts and the appointment of conservative judges that has helped push the Supreme Court to the right.
At roughly 8:15 am ET, Trump left the White House and boarded Marine One with his wife, Melania Trump. Trump paused briefly in front of the media scrum and hinted on plans for a busy post-presidency, telling reporters he “hoped it would not be a long goodbye,” according to CNN.
Trump becomes the first president since President Richard Nixon not to attend his successor’s swearing in.
Trump has refused to acknowledge the incoming president by name. As late as Jan. 6, he was still denying the outcome of the election and insisting that he would never concede. But after his supporters rioted at the Capitol building, attacking police officers and ransacking offices, resulting in five deaths, Trump grudgingly conceded that his time was up without fully abandoning his claims of voter fraud.
At Joint Base Andrews, Trump did offer some warm words to the incoming administration, without mentioning Biden directly. He also used that olive branch as an opportunity to play up his own record.
“I wish the new administration great luck and great success,” Trump said. “I think they’ll have great success they have the foundation to do something really spectacular. And again we put it in a position like it’s never been before despite the worst plague to hit, since I guess you’d say, 1917, over a hundred years ago.”
The president has been increasingly isolated in his final days in office, with former supporters such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell distancing themselves from Trump. He leaves office with the coronavirus raging, and facing fierce criticism of his handling of a pandemic that’s left more than 400,000 Americans dead. He also exits the stage at a time of intense political polarization and with an unprecedented amount of military presence in D.C. due to the threat of further violence.
In a recorded video released on Tuesday, the president said he would pray for the success of the new administration. He also touted his administration’s achievements and warned of the loss of America’s common heritage.
He also said he was deeply moved to see thousands of people come out to cheer for him on motorcade routes.
“I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning,” he said.
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