Donald Trump's Departure Plans Crystallize For Inauguration Day: Reports
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Donald Trump will be clinging to the last vestiges of his presidency thousands of feet in the air before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.
The outgoing president is taking Air Force One home to Florida while he still can, arriving there before Biden is sworn in around noon, CBS News reported.
As it stands now, Trump is “scheduled to land in West Palm Beach, FL at 11am Wednesday morning with just 1 hour left in his Presidency. He no longer has access to Air Force One as of noon that day,” CBS’s Ben Tracy tweeted Sunday.
Trump would no longer be deemed the commander in chief after noon, and the aircraft would lose its “Air Force One” call sign ― which Trump wanted to avoid, NBC News noted earlier.
Usually presidents depart on another government jet to begin civilian life.
Other moving-out day plans have also begun to take shape, according to media reports.
The White House sent out invitations for Trump’s departure event at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews, which begins at 8 a.m., Bloomberg reported. Guests can bring up to five other people, must wear masks and should arrive between 6 a.m. and 7:15 a.m., Bloomberg reported after viewing one of the invitations.
Trump favored the red-carpet treatment with a 21-gun salute and military band, reports noted.
His helicopter goodbye from the White House’s South Lawn is expected to be a low-key affair. Some White House aides will be there to send off Marine One, and attendance will be “limited,” Bloomberg reported. Heightened security around the inauguration site and the White House following the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 have curtailed the crowd size.
Trump, the only president to be impeached twice and the only president in modern history to not attend his successor’s inauguration, will likely spend the rest of the day at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Palm Beach police recently warned residents that the Secret Service would have a “final road closure near Mar-a-Lago” on Jan. 20 and that it would be closed for several days, CBS in Miami reported.
“Beyond this, we do not foresee any future road closures related to the presence of a former President,” police wrote.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
