Trump leaves the White House for the last time as president

President Donald Trump departed the White House on Wednesday morning for the last time as the commander in chief after four tumultuous years that shook the nation, choosing to leave town rather than face the reality that he lost reelection to President-elect Joe Biden.

“Have a good life; we will see you soon,” Trump said at the end of off-the-cuff remarks delivered to supporters at Joint Base Andrews, discarding a prepared statement and ignoring advisers who thought he should have thanked Biden by name.

“We were not a regular administration,” Trump said, delivering a truncated version of his self-aggrandising campaign rally speech, and imploring those gathered — most without masks — to “remember” all of his accomplishments.

“We will be back in some form,” he added, before walking away from his last appearance as the nation’s commander in chief to the strains of “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People.

Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner and family members attend the departure ceremony of US President Donald Trump at the Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, January 20, 2021. Reuters

His vice president, Mike Pence, did not attend his farewell event.

Despite flouting most of the conventions associated with the peaceful transfer of power, Trump did abide by one presidential norm — leaving the traditional note to Biden in the Oval Office, according to a White House official.

It was not clear what the letter said.

Trump left the White House on a red carpet, hand in hand with Melania Trump, the first lady, who wore a dark suit and sunglasses, and spoke briefly with reporters before boarding his helicopter, where he stood in the doorway one last instant, waving goodbye with his right hand.

US President Donald Trump speaks next to first lady Melania Trump as he departs from the Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, January 20, 2021. Reuters

The Marine One helicopter took off from the South Lawn of the White House at about 8:18 a.m. for the short flight to Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland, where the president held the farewell event, including a 21-gun salute, with administration veterans and other supporters. After that, he and Melania Trump boarded Air Force One for the journey to Florida, where they will reside.

Trump surrendered the building after a late night of signing last-minute pardons and other clemency orders for 143 people, including Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist; Elliott Broidy, one of his top fundraisers in 2016; and a series of politicians convicted of corruption. The White House did not announce the pardons until after midnight and then followed up at 1:07 a.m. with an order revoking the ethics rules that Trump had imposed on his own former aides.

First lady Melania Trump sits as US President Donald Trump speaks at the Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, January 20, 2021. Reuters

In slipping out of Washington before the festivities Wednesday, Trump capped a norm-busting tenure by defying one last convention. He refused to host the traditional coffee that presidents hold for their successors at the White House on the morning of the inauguration. And he opted to skip the swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, normally a symbol of the American tradition of peaceful transfer of power that is attended by both departing and incoming presidents.

No president has refused to attend his successor’s inauguration since 1869, when Andrew Johnson, miffed that Ulysses S. Grant would not share a carriage with him to the Capitol, refused at the last minute to get into the separate carriage arranged for him and skipped the ceremony. (Woodrow Wilson travelled to the Capitol for Warren G. Harding’s inauguration in 1921 but did not remain for the ceremony because of his failing health.)

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump depart the White House on Wednesday morning, Jan. 20, 2021, hours before the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)

Trump leaves office by one measure as the most unpopular president in the history of polling. He is the only president since Gallup began surveys under Harry S. Truman to never garner the support of a majority of the public for a single day of his presidency, and his 41% average approval over the course of his tenure is the lowest of any president in that time.

Trump, however, never came to terms with his defeat in the 2020 election.

“Could you imagine if I lose?” he said at a rally in Georgia in October. “My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country. I don’t know.”

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump depart the White House on Wednesday morning, Jan. 20, 2021, hours before the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)

Trump, who went on to lose by 7 million votes in the popular tally and 306-232 in the Electoral College, spent the two months after the election trying to overturn the results with false allegations of widespread fraud that were rejected by Republican and Democratic election officials and scores of judges, including some whom he had appointed.

The House last week impeached Trump for inciting an insurrection after a crowd of his supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, and the Senate is poised to put him on trial in days, even though he will no longer be in office. Although it will be too late to remove him from power, a Senate conviction would amount to a bipartisan repudiation in the history books, and lawmakers could also disqualify him from holding office again, thwarting his talk of running for president again in 2024.

In a farewell address he released on video Tuesday afternoon, Trump took no responsibility for the Capitol siege or for the coronavirus pandemic that has now claimed 400,000 lives in the United States.

President Donald Trump departs the White House on Wednesday morning, Jan. 20, 2021, hours before the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)

Instead, he boasted of his accomplishments cutting taxes, eliminating regulations, appointing conservative judges and revising trade deals.

“The movement we started,” he said, “is only just beginning.”

© 2021 The New York Times Company