One last wave goodbye: The final image of a disgraced President Trump reluctantly leaving the White House
- President Donald Trump has left the White House for the final time.
- Trump boarded Marine One shortly after 8:15 a.m. on Wednesday.
- For the first time in 152 years, the outgoing president will not attend his successor's inauguration.
President Donald Trump boarded Marine One this morning for one last chopper ride off of the White House South Lawn.
Trump waved goodbye from the steps of the helicopter before heading over to Joint Base Andrews for his farewell address.
The outgoing president will not attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration later in the day, marking the first such snub in more than 150 years.
Biden, for his part, said Trump not attending the ceremony is "one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on."
While Trump has still not conceded the 2020 election or explicitly acknowledged Biden as the legitimate winner, he has used the term "a new administration" in recent days and has promised to ensure a peaceful transfer of power following the deadly insurrection he incited on Capitol Hill two weeks ago.
After delivering unscripted remarks on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, Trump boarded Air Force One with his family and headed off to Florida.
Vice President Mike Pence skipped Trump's farewell ceremony, with his office saying logistics prevented Pence from attending both the sendoff and Biden's inauguration. Along with Pence, top Republicans Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell - the minority leaders of the House and Senate, respectively, once Biden is sworn in - are also skipped the Joint Base Andrews event, with their relationships with Trump becoming strained ever since the attempted coup.
Before leaving the White House for the last time, Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 commutations in a wave of clemency grants.