Trump Wanted a Big Sendoff—and Didn’t Get It

The grubby part of a glistening Inauguration Day played out just before 9 A.M., at Joint Base Andrews, where Donald Trump had come to say goodbye to the Presidency. Or almost goodbye. He was still entitled to take one last flight on Air Force One, to Florida. Mar-a-Lago awaited. Trump’s adult children, their partners, and a few of his grandchildren stood in line for review, near a small crowd of supporters or, perhaps, curiosity seekers. There were also cannons set up to fire a salute for Trump—who had, two weeks earlier, sent a mob to try to overturn the election—or at least to make some noise for him.

When Trump came to the microphone, he had remarkably little to say, and even he seemed to sense it. “It’s been something very special. We accomplished a lot,” he said. There was an echo in those words. In a video released while the mob was still roaming the halls of the Capitol, Trump called its members “very special” people. The repetition was almost certainly not deliberate—“special” is a word that Trump uses so often that it is almost a mark of how deadened his rhetoric is. He nonetheless remains a man with a following in the tens of millions, including a smaller contingent who are apparently willing to violently assault their fellow-citizens on his behalf. He can still do a great deal of harm to our democracy, but, watching him on Wednesday, it was clear that he would need at least a few hours to figure out how. He has become accustomed to relying on the props of Presidential power—the big plane behind him, the marines saluting him. At his departure, the soundtrack included “Hail to the Chief,” as well as songs such as “Gloria” and “Y.M.C.A.” that have become improbable standards at his rallies.

On this day, the Republican officials who usually act as extras at his rallies, coming onstage to pledge their loyalty, were absent. Many of them were attending the swearing in of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, at the Capitol, where the music was different, the performers electrifying (Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Garth Brooks), and the real party, with a chance to mix with people who have real power, was happening. But those politicians may yet be back on the same stage with Trump, whether at their own rallies or at his. Trump has not ruled out running for President in 2024—if he isn’t convicted in the Senate impeachment trial and then barred from federal office. According to a Wall Street Journal report, he is also mulling over the idea of further fracturing the G.O.P. by founding a new political organization—the Patriot Party is a potential name, though the brand is still under construction.

A little over a minute into the speech, perhaps lacking a better move, Trump beckoned to Melania Trump—“so popular with the people,” he said—who was standing a few feet to the side, in what fashion writers later ruled to be a black Chanel jacket over a black Dolce & Gabbana dress. (By the time the Trumps had arrived in Florida, she had traded the ensemble for a printed Gucci caftan, lest anyone misread the sombre look as a sign of seriousness or reflection.) Trump asked her to say a few words, and she obliged with the blandest she could find: being First Lady was an honor, thanks for the love, the American people were in her “thoughts and prayers,” God bless America.

“What else has to be said, right?” Trump said. “That’s true, honey. Great job.” Then it was time for a little self-praise. Trump recited his accomplishments and, as he had in a taped speech the night before, exaggerated and mangled the truth—that almost anything he did was greater than what anyone had ever done. There was an extra boast about the Space Force, the creation of which, he said, would be a major achievement even for “a regular Administration.” There was no mention of what had made his Administration distinctly irregular, or regret for his role in undermining what really makes this country great, unless the failed insurrection is what he was referring to when he told the crowd that “we left it all in the field.” Instead, he tried his best to plant the idea that anything great that President Biden does will be the result of a foundation that he, Trump, had laid: “Remember us when you see these things happening.” He made it clear that he believed that the toll taken by “the China virus,” as he, in a final note of xenophobia, called it, was someone else’s fault.

Toward the end of the speech, he briefly thanked Mike Pence, who also was at the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony; he did not address the belief among some of his supporters that Pence is a traitor who ought to be killed. He never mentioned Biden. As in his taped address, he wished the new Administration luck. He also said to the crowd, “Have a nice life.”

When Trump thanked the other Trumps, early in his speech, he said, “People have no idea how hard this family worked.” Perhaps they worked for themselves. And there are reports that his adult children, particularly Ivanka, were involved in his late-night scramble to grant pardons or commutations to more than a hundred and forty people, from Steve Bannon, his former campaign chief, who more recently has been a freelance peddler of election-fraud conspiracies, to the rapper Lil Wayne, and various mid-level grifters. There were also people, including a number of nonviolent drug offenders with excessive sentences, whose cases have simply caught the eye of someone Trump listens to; it will take time to sort all the stories out. (In what may have been his last act as President, Trump added the ex-husband of the Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro to the list.) Rudy Giuliani, the President’s lawyer, was left out. Ivanka and her siblings did not get preëmptive pardons. They may be arrogant enough to believe that they don’t need them. And Trump did not pardon himself—something he probably couldn’t have done constitutionally, anyway. He may have a whole range of legal problems ahead; as soon as next week, though, he will go on trial in the Senate.