- It looks like President Donald Trump is heading south to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida instead of attending Joe Biden’s inauguration.
- The Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary flight restrictions on the private club on January 20, indicating the president’s arrival.
- One of Trump’s latest tweets confirms the suspicion that he would not be at the Biden inauguration.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump appears to be traveling to a warmer climate instead of attending the inauguration of Joe Biden on Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration has just issued flight restrictions for the air above Palm Beach, Florida, on January 20, indicating that the president will depart to the south on his last day in office and skip the traditional Capitol launch by leaving Washington move on Marine One.
Palm Beach is home to Trump’s private club Mar-a-Lago; it became the Winter White House during its administration – and its regular refuge. According to an NBC News detective, Trump spent 133 days at the club and held consultations with world leaders there, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Trump changed his address to Palm Beach in October 2019, reports the New York Times, and is said to be moving there permanently after his tenure.
Read more: GOP kicks Trump to cage deadly Capitol uprising, leaving the president to take care of himself during his historic 2nd indictment
The move is in line with one of the president’s latest tweets from his personal Twitter account, where he vaguely said he would not attend Biden’s inauguration.
“To everyone who asked, I will not go 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 to confirm the president’s travel plans.
Protecting the president while traveling
The FAA issues what it calls temporary flight restrictions when the president and vice president leave Washington. Pilots are generally not allowed to fly within a few miles of the president’s seat without authorization if the restrictions apply.
The new restrictions begin on Jan. 20 at 10:45 a.m., on which pilots will not be able to fly within ten nautical miles and 18,000 feet of Palm Beach International Airport. The restrictions expire around noon, when the president’s term ends. Mar-a-Lago sits just a few meters from the runway to the eastern runways of the airport.
A separate flight restriction has been issued for the air above Mar-a-Lago, but it is less stringent. From 20:30 on 20 January to 12:30 on 21 January, pilots will not be able to fly within 3 nautical miles and 3000 feet of the club.
Local flying schools near Palm Beach have lagged behind under the presidential airspace restrictions, as general aviation aircraft on training flights are usually prohibited from operating within the restricted airspace or departing from the airports below. Flight schools lose an estimated $ 30,000 on weekends on weekends when President Trump visits and $ 50,000 on long weekends, according to the plane owner and pilots’ association.
Trump’s visits to Palm Beach became so frequent that the federal government began compensating flight schools for lost revenue. $ 3.5 million in aid is included in a 2019 general aviation operator spending bill affected by the president’s travels.
Trump rarely left the White House in January, with several trips to Georgia on the campaign for Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, and a final visit to Texas. A rare weekend trip to Camp David was planned just two days after the riots in the U.S. Capitol building, a White House official confirmed to Insider, but the trip was later scrapped.
And while the transition of power will be peaceful, the president may not be quietly boarding Air Force One in his post-political life. According to USA Today, a departure ceremony is planned for Trump at the Andrews Air Force Base, with just as much pomp and circumstance as the series finale of a television program.
A color guard and 21-gun salute are on the agenda, USA Today reported.
Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke with Trump in the days surrounding the certification of the Electoral College, is reportedly attending the inauguration.