President Donald Trump departed the White House as commander-in-chief for the final time Wednesday morning.
Trump held an official sendoff ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, where he pledged to “be back in some form,” before traveling to Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida resort. He and Melania will temporarily live there before moving to a permanent residence. Trump will be the first president in over a century to not attend the inauguration of his successor. (RELATED: Watch Trump’s Farewell Address To The Nation — ‘The Movement We Started Is Only Just Beginning’)
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Trump’s final acts as president included signing a string of executive orders and pardons late Tuesday night.
One executive order in particular overturned a previous order that banned “drain the swamp” lobbying, often called a hallmark achievement of his presidency. His final pardons — in total, 143 — included a commuted sentence for his former top adviser Steve Bannon, who was indicted earlier this year for defrauding Trump supporters of millions of dollars through a non-profit border wall initiative.
He also declassified the remaining documents in the Operation Crossfire Hurricane “binder,” the counterintelligence investigation into potential interference into the 2016 election. Trump had long referred to the investigation as a “witch hunt” and vowed to classify as many documents pertaining to the probe as possible before leaving office.