Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday delivered his farewell speech to the nation, in which he touted what he had achieved during the four-year term, while asking Americans to pray for the success of Joe Biden, the incoming president.
"As I conclude my term as the 45th President of the United States, I stand before you truly proud of what we have achieved together," Trump said in a pre-taped video released Tuesday afternoon.
Among the achievements that the president boasted were the 2017 tax cuts that he signed into law; a resurgent economy which he claimed credit for, but descended into recession due to the coronavirus pandemic; the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital that experts said destabilized the Middle East; the normalization of ties between Israel and some Arab countries that his administration brokered; as well as what he claimed to be the United States outperforming other nations economically during the pandemic, which, as he spoke, killed more than 400,000 Americans cumulatively.
"This week, we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous," Trump said in the video. "We extend our best wishes and we also want them to have luck," he added, without explicitly calling out Biden, to whom he has yet to concede defeat.
The president also mentioned the siege of the Capitol, for which he was impeached by the House, saying "all Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we cherish as Americans. It can never be tolerated."
Almost concurrently, Biden, flying a private jet, arrived in Washington, D.C. for Wednesday's inauguration, which Trump won't attend. The president will head to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida shortly before the inauguration is set to begin.
