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- President Donald Trump appears to be heading south towards Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, instead of attending Joe Biden’s inauguration.
- The Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary flight restrictions over the private club for Jan.20, indicating the president’s arrival.
- One of Trump’s last tweets confirmed suspicions he wouldn’t be at Biden’s inauguration.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump appears to be traveling in a warmer climate instead of attending Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.
Flight restrictions have just been issued for the skies over Palm Beach, Florida by the Federal Aviation Administration for Jan.20, indicating the president will head south on his last day in office and avoid the traditional sending of the Capitol leaving Washington on Marine One. .
Palm Beach is home to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club; it became the Winter White House during his administration – and his frequent retreat. Trump spent 133 days at the club, according to an NBC News tracker, and held summits there with world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Trump changed his address to Palm Beach in October 2019, the New York Times reported, and would move there permanently after his tenure.
Read more: GOP kicks Trump to curb deadly Capitol Hill insurgency, leaving president to fend for himself in historic second impeachment
The move is in line with one of the president’s last tweets on his personal Twitter account, in which he made it clear that he would not be attending Biden’s inauguration.
“To everyone who asked the question, I will not be going to the inauguration on January 20,” Trump said in a now-hidden tweet. (Twitter suspended the president’s personal account on January 8 after the Capitol riots.)
The White House did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for confirmation of the president’s travel plans.
Protect the president while traveling
The FAA issues what it calls temporary flight restrictions whenever the President and Vice President leave Washington. Pilots are generally not allowed to fly within a few miles of the chair’s location without permission when restrictions are in place.
The new restrictions begin at 10:45 a.m. on January 20, when pilots will not be able to fly within 10 nautical miles and 18,000 feet of Palm Beach International Airport. The restrictions will expire at noon, at the end of the president’s term. Mar-a-Lago is just a few meters from the east runway approach path of the airport.
A separate flight restriction has been issued for the sky directly over Mar-a-Lago, but they are less stringent. From 11:30 am on January 20 to 12:30 pm on January 21, pilots will not be able to fly within 3 nautical miles and 3,000 feet of the club.
Local flight schools near Palm Beach languish under presidential airspace restrictions, as general aviation planes on training flights are generally prohibited from operating in restricted airspace or from departing from the air. airports located below. Flight schools lose about $ 30,000 on weekends on President Trump’s visits and $ 50,000 on long weekends, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Trump’s visits to Palm Beach became so frequent that the federal government began to reimburse flight schools for lost revenue. Assistance in the amount of $ 3.5 million was included in a 2019 expense bill for general aviation operators affected by the President’s travel.
Trump rarely left the White House in January, except for a few trips to Georgia during Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue’s campaign, and a final visit to Texas. A rare weekend at Camp David was planned for just two days after the U.S. Capitol riots, a White House official confirmed to Insider, but the trip was later canceled.
And while the transition of power will be peaceful, the president may not go silently aboard Air Force One in his post-political life. A departure ceremony would be scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base for Trump, according to USA Today, with as much pomp and circumstance as the series finale of a TV show.
A color guard and a 21-gun salute are the order of the day, USA Today reported.
Vice President Mike Pence, who had argued with Trump in the days surrounding the Electoral College certification, would attend the inauguration.
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