President Trump left the White House for the last time on Wednesday morning, vowing to supporters that he’ll be back.
“Goodbye, we love you,” Mr. Trump said at a departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “We will be back in some form. Have a good life, we will see you soon.”Then he and first lady Melania Trump boarded Air Force One with their family for the flight to Florida, where the Trumps will live at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
Mr. Trump’s term in office ends at noon, when President-elect Joseph R. Biden takes the oath of office at the Capitol as the 46th president. He has discussed running in 2024, although he faces a Senate impeachment trial in a few days that could bar him from holding office again.Mr. Trump said he’s leaving Mr. Biden’s new administration with “the foundation to do something really spectacular.”
“You’re going to see incredible [economic] numbers start coming in, if everything is left alone,” Mr. Trump said. “Remember us when you see these things happening. Remember us.”
He said, “I wish the new administration great luck and great success. I think they’ll have great success. I hope they don’t raise your taxes, but if they do, I told you so.”
Mr. Trump said he has no regrets.
“We have worked hard. We’ve left it all, as the athletes would say, we’ve left it all on the field,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of obstacles. We’ll never say in month, when we’re sitting in Florida, we’re not going to be looking at each other and saying, ‘If only we’d worked a little bit harder.’”
He also offered “great love to all of the people who have suffered” from what he called “the China virus.”
“It is my greatest honor and privilege to have been your president,” Mr. Trump said. “I will always fight for you. I will be watching, I will be listening. I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better.”
The Trumps left the White House around 8:15 a.m. for the short flight on Marine One to the military base. About 300 people, including family members and staffers, greeted the president and first lady at Andrews to say good-bye. Artillery gave Mr. Trump a 21-gun salute on the chilly morning with bright sunshine.
“This has been an incredible four years,” Mr. Trump told the crowd. “We’ve accomplished so much together.
Sign up for Daily Newsletters
Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC.
Click
here for reprint permission.