Pentagon denies big military departure; Trump plans his own ceremony

President Donald Trump might be sailing off on his own without a big military parade farewell. A recent report from a top Defense blog has stated that two senior defense officials have confirmed the Pentagon has no military farewell being planned for Trump. The president has instead planned his own sendoff ceremony.

Part of this situation might be due to President Trump stating he was not attending the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Several reports suggest Trump and his family might leave for Florida that day. If Trump is not there, then it would be difficult to provide him with a military departure. However, it remains unclear on what the Pentagon based their decision on.

If Trump made it clear that he would not attend, then it also makes sense if the military has not planned anything, nor plans to plan anything.

Either way, the president is holding his own sendoff ceremony in the morning and has already sent invites. It’s scheduled for 8am in Maryland.

Kevin Baron of Defense One reported the following about the Pentagon’s denial of a large military farewell planning for President Trump:

On Wednesday, the White House announced that this weekend Vice President Mike Pence “will deliver remarks to sailors on the Trump Administration’s historic foreign policy achievements at Naval Air Station Lemoore,” and then to the 10th Mountain Division, in Fort Drum, New York. Two senior defense officials confirmed to Defense One on Thursday that no military farewell is being planned for the commander in chief.

In retrospect, here is the moment that former President Barack Obama and then President-elect Donald Trump left the White House to attend the inauguration. It was captured on video, as was Obama’s military sendoff ceremony.

The military also gave a proper farewell to former President Barack Obama, which can be seen here, on video, from four years ago.