Trump's Last Words as President at Joint Base Andrews: 'We Will Be Back in Some Form'

On the morning of January 20, 2021, about three hours before Joe Biden was sworn in, Donald Trump said goodbye to the presidency on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. He spoke at 8:35 a.m. to a small crowd of family, staff and supporters, then boarded Air Force One for Palm Beach, Florida [1]. CNN reported that he set aside prepared remarks and that the teleprompters were taken off the stage before he arrived [3]. The result was a loose, unscripted talk that mixed a defense of his record, a warning about taxes, kind words for the incoming administration and a line his supporters took as a promise: “We will be back in some form.”

Key Moments

A send-off with a 21-gun salute

The ceremony borrowed the trappings of a state occasion: a 21-gun salute and a military band playing “Hail to the Chief” [2]. Melania Trump spoke first and briefly: “Being your First Lady was my greatest honor. Thank you for your love and your support” [1].

”We’ve left it all in the field”

Trump called his four years “amazing by any standard” and reached for a sports phrase to describe them: “We’ve left it all, as the athletes would say, we’ve left it all in the field.” He named the creation of the Space Force, “the largest tax cut and reform in the history of our country,” cuts to regulations, and “almost 300 Federal judges and 3 great Supreme Court Justices” [1].

The vaccine as “a medical miracle”

He singled out the COVID-19 vaccine, which had begun reaching Americans five weeks earlier: “We got the vaccine developed in 9 months, instead of 9 years or 5 years or 10 years.” He called it “really considered a medical miracle” [1].

A warning on taxes

Turning to the Biden administration, he predicted good economic numbers “if everything is, sort of, left alone. Be careful.” Then came the line that drew laughter from the crowd: “I hope they don’t raise your taxes, but if they do, I told you so” [1].

”We will be back in some form”

He wished his successor “great luck and great success” without saying Biden’s name, and argued he was handing over a country “in a position like it’s never been before, despite the worst plague to hit since, I guess you’d say, 1917.” His closing words were the ones that lasted: “So, just a goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form.” And a few lines later: “So have a good life. We will see you soon” [1].

Background: Two Farewells and a Missed Inauguration

Trump said goodbye twice. On January 19, the White House released a prerecorded farewell address to the nation, a scripted video that reviewed his record and condemned political violence two weeks after the January 6 attack on the Capitol [5]. The Andrews remarks the next morning were his last in office, and they came a week after the House had impeached him a second time, on a charge of incitement of insurrection.

By flying to Florida instead of attending the ceremony at the Capitol, Trump became the first outgoing president in about 150 years to skip his successor’s inauguration. The last was Andrew Johnson, in 1869 [4]. He was at his Mar-a-Lago club when his term ended at noon.

Fact Check

“Almost 300 Federal judges.” Overstated. Trump appointed 234 Article III judges in his first term: three Supreme Court justices plus 231 appeals court, district court and Court of International Trade judges [6]. That was close to a record for a single term, but well short of 300.
“The largest tax cut and reform in the history of our country.” False. Measured against the size of the economy, the 2017 law cost about 0.9% of GDP; Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut cost about 2.9%. PolitiFact ranked the 2017 law seventh by that measure and fourth in inflation-adjusted dollars [14].
“Developed in 9 months, instead of 9 years.” Roughly right as a description of the speed. The first vaccine was authorized for emergency use on December 11, 2020, less than a year after the virus was identified, against a typical development timeline measured in years [7].

What Happened Next

The impeachment trial: On February 13, 2021, 57 senators voted to convict Trump of incitement, including seven Republicans, but conviction needed 67, and he was acquitted [8].
“Incredible numbers”: The economy grew 5.7% in 2021, after shrinking 3.4% in 2020 [9]. Inflation came too: consumer prices rose 9.1% in the year to June 2022, the largest increase since 1981 [10].
Taxes: Congress never passed Biden’s proposals to raise the corporate rate to 28% or restore the 39.6% top income-tax rate. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 instead created a 15% minimum tax on corporations earning over $1 billion [11]. Back in office, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4, 2025, making the 2017 tax cuts permanent [15].
“We will be back”: He was. Trump announced a new campaign at Mar-a-Lago on November 15, 2022 [12], won the 2024 election, and became the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve two nonconsecutive terms [13].

Sources

Full Transcript

Read the full official transcript

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Crowd chants: “We love you”]

Thank you very much, and we love you. And I can tell you that from the bottom of my heart.

This has been an incredible four years. We’ve accomplished so much together.

I want to thank all of my family and my friends and my staff and so many other people for being here. I want to thank you for your effort, your hard work. People have no idea how hard this family work. And they worked for you.

They could have had a much easier life, but they just did a fantastic job. I just want to thank all of you, everyone. I want to thank Mark Meadows who’s here someplace right there I want to thank Mark.

But it’s been, it’s been something very special, we’ve accomplished a lot, our first lady has been a woman of great grace and beauty and dignity. And so popular with the people, so popular with the people, in fact, honey, would you like to say a few words?

[Melania Trump]: Being your first lady was my greatest honour. Thank you for your love and your support, you will be in my thoughts and prayers. God bless you all. God bless your families, and God bless this beautiful nation.

[Donald Trump]: What else has to be said, right? But what we’ve done – that’s true, honey. Great job. What we’ve done has been amazing, by any standard, we rebuilt the United States military, created a new force called Space Force that, in itself, would be a major achievement for a regular administration, we were not a regular administration.

We took care of the vets – 91 percent approval rating they’ve never had that before, the vets have given us the VA, the vets have given us an approval rating like has never been before. We took care of our vets and beautiful vets they were very badly treated before we came along. And as you know, we get them great service and we pick up the bill and they can go out and they can see a doctor, if they have to wait long periods of time. We got it so that we can, sadly, get rid of people that don’t treat our vets properly. We didn’t have any of those rights before when I came on. So, our vets are happy, our people are happy. Our military is thrilled.

We also got tax cuts, the largest tax cut and reform in the history of our country by far. I hope they don’t raise your taxes. But if they do, I told you so!

If you look at the regulations which I consider the regulation cuts to be maybe even more important. That’s why we have such good and have had such good job numbers. The job numbers have been absolutely incredible.

What we started had we not been hit by the pandemic, we would have had numbers that would never have been seen. Already our numbers are the best ever.

If you look at what happened until February, a year ago, our numbers were at a level that nobody had ever seen before. And even now we really built it twice. We got hit, nobody blames us for that, the whole world got it and then we built it again. And now the stock market is actually substantially higher than it was at its higher point prior to the pandemic. So it’s really – you could say, we built it twice.

And you’re gonna see, you’re gonna see incredible numbers start coming in. If everything is sort of left alone and be careful, very complex. Be careful. But you’re gonna see some incredible things happening. And remember us when you see these things happening, if you – remember us because I’m looking at – I’m looking at elements of our economy that are set to be a rocket ship up. It’s a rocket ship up.

We have the greatest country in the world. We have the greatest economy in the world and as bad as the pandemic was, we were hit so hard just like the entire world was hit so hard, places that don’t they got away with it didn’t get away with it, they’re suffering right now. We did something that is really considered a medical miracle. They’re calling it a miracle. And that was the vaccine.

We got the vaccine developed in nine months instead of nine years, or five years, or 10 years. A long time. It was supposed to take a long time, many, many years to develop a vaccine. We have two out. We have another one coming almost immediately, and it really is a great achievement. So, you should start to see really good numbers over the next few months. I think you’re going to see those numbers really skyrocket downward.

And I can always say this. We’ve worked hard. We’ve left it all, as the athletes would say, we’ve left it all in the field. We don’t have to – we don’t have to come and say we’ll never say in a month when we’re sitting in Florida, we’re not going to be looking at each other and say you know if we only worked a little bit harder, you can’t work harder. And we had a lot of obstacles and we went through the obstacles. And we just got 75 million votes and that’s a record in the history of – in the history of sitting presidents. That’s an all-time record by a lot. By many millions. In the history of sitting presidents, it’s been really just an honour.

One of the things we’re very, very proud of is the selection of almost 300 federal judges and three great Supreme Court justices. That’s a very big number that’s a record-setting number and so we’ve done a lot and there’s still things to do.

The first thing we have to do is pay our respects and our love to the incredible people and families who suffered so gravely from the China virus. It’s a horrible thing that was put onto the world. We all know where it came from, but it’s a horrible, horrible thing. So be very careful. Be very, very careful, but we want to pay great love, great love to all of the people that have suffered, including families who have suffered so gravely.

So with that, I just want to say, you are amazing people. This is a great, great country. It is my greatest honour and privilege to have been your president.

I will always fight for you. I will be watching, I will be listening. And I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better.

I wish the new administration, great luck and great success. I think they’ll have great success. They have the foundation to do something really spectacular. And again, we put it in a position like it’s never been before. Despite the worst plague to hit since I guess you’d say 1917, over 100 years ago. And despite that, despite that, the things that we’ve done have been just incredible. And I couldn’t have done it without you.

So, just a goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form.

And again, I want to just, in leaving, I want to thank our Vice President Mike Pence and Karen. I want to thank Congress cause we really worked well with Congress, at least certain elements in Congress. But we really did. We’ve gotten so much done that nobody thought would be possible but I do want to thank Congress and I want to thank all of the great people of Washington, DC, all of the people that we worked with to put this miracle together.

So, have a good life. We will see you soon. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.