President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump escort former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama to their helicopter on the Capitol plaza on Jan. 20. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Inside Obama's final goodbyes The former president buoys aides by saying ‘this is not a period, this is a comma…’

An alarm rang in the hangar at Joint Base Andrews as the giant doors started sliding open. Behind them was the distinctive blue and white 747, now no longer Air Force One. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama finished their hugs and walked up the stairs together, now no longer president and first lady.

“Michelle and I have really been milking this goodbye thing,” Obama had acknowledged a few minutes earlier, to the 1,800 staffers and their families, including most former members of his Cabinet, who’d leapt to their feet as soon as the helicopter briefly known as Executive One appeared in the sky and a woman in the bleachers called out, “There he is!”


“It behooves me to be very brief,” the former president said.

“No!” shouted the crowd.

“Yes, yes,” Obama said.

Looking out for the last time at the faces of the people who’d been working for him every day at the White House, at the precise moment that President Donald Trump was signing his first executive orders, Obama urged them not to lose the hope they’d had in him.

“This is just a little pit stop. This is not a period, this is a comma in the continuing story of building America,” he said.

They’d been waiting for hours. There were no television screens to watch the inauguration. A few watched on their phones and started a short “Yes We Can” cheer at the moment Trump took the oath of office. “It’ll all be OK — eventually,” one young staffer said to another.

About 10 minutes into Trump’s inaugural address, a man suddenly appeared on the stage and led the crowd in singing the national anthem. “Louder!” he called out as they reached, “Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave …”

“Our democracy is not the buildings. It’s not the monuments. It’s you,” Obama said when he arrived, not speaking from prepared remarks, he and his wife still in their overcoats, as he briefly recalled the people who’d been with him since 2008 and made certain that his campaign “was infused with a sense of hope.”

“We could not be prouder of you. I could not be prouder,” Obama said. “And we look forward to continuing this journey with all of you. And I can’t wait to see what you do next. I promise you, I’ll be right there with you.”

A lot had changed in the four hours since Obama walked out of the Oval Office for the last time, acknowledging some nostalgia, leaving some papers on the desk which seemed to include the traditional letter each president leaves for the next. He’d walked back along the colonnade one last time and headed to the State Dining Room, where White House chief usher Angella Reid and White House curator Bill Allman did the traditional presentation of the flags that flew over the White House the first day the Obamas arrived in 2009 and on Thursday, Obama’s last full day as president.

Reid, according to people present, joked that they’d now be entitled to their security deposit back.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, arrived, and the two couples stayed talking for a few minutes, until Trump and Vice President Mike Pence arrived with their wives, then headed out to greet their successors.

Before they left for the inaugural ceremony, the Obamas and the Bidens slipped upstairs one last time to the residence on the second floor for a few minutes, just the four of them.

Back downstairs, they said their goodbyes to the house staff, and stepped into their limousines for Obama’s final ride as president.

Obama listened as Trump gave an inaugural address that was in large part an indictment of his presidency, eyes closed at one point, but staring intently forward for most of it. He walked with Trump out of the Capitol and down to the helicopter waiting to take him to Andrews and shook his successor’s hand. As Obama turned to first lady Melania Trump, the new president gave Michelle Obama — whose facial expressions through the day, from when she received the Trumps’ gift in a Tiffany blue box, to her reactions at the ceremony, quickly launched a thousand internet memes — a kiss on both cheeks, pulling her in twice for last things to say.

On Thursday, those Obama aides who were left at the White House spent their day on a scavenger hunt organized by chief of staff Denis McDonough. It included finding the scorch marks left from when the British burned the building in the war of 1812 and writing their names in permanent marker on the leftover tiles of the swimming pool that lies under what is now the White House briefing room.

Thursday night, the Obamas invited the couple of dozen staffers who remained to a final champagne toast in the State Dining Room to say thanks. The outgoing president spoke there, too, talking about the existential debate of whether individuals change history, or whether history happens and carries people along for the ride.

Teams change history, he told them he’s concluded, according to people in the room.

He turned to McDonough, calling him the team captain and thanking him for the culture he’d built in the White House, and started choking up. He thanked Tina Tchen, the outgoing first lady’s chief of staff, and Susan Rice, who ran his national security team.

He called the staff gathered there with him his family, people who’ve seen him and his wife in moments that were not their best, during moments of stress.

Then the Obamas led the staff up the stairs to the family residence, a part of the White House where few of even the closest aides have ever been. They let the staffers visit the the Treaty Room, the Yellow Oval and the Lincoln Bedroom. They got to walk out on the Truman Balcony and take photos.

Both Obamas stayed with them, talking for hours.

By the time it was all over Friday afternoon, Obama walked quickly to the stage at Joint Base Andrews, giving a quick high five to the son of press secretary Josh Earnest before taking his spot behind a lectern that for the first time in eight years didn’t bear the seal of the president of the United States.

He spoke for seven minutes, then joined his wife in shaking hands with the people pressed toward the front. He turned to the section where his senior staff was, grabbing his friend and former attorney general Eric Holder in a soul hug, giving another child one last fist bump and “blowing it up,” as he likes to do. Valerie Jarrett, his friend and closest aide, headed for the plane to join the Obamas on their brief vacation in California. One last hug for McDonough made the whole crowd cheer. Rice, another of Obama’s longest-serving aides and the one responsible for the nuclear briefing that was last handover of the national security apparatus to Trump on Friday morning, was in tears watching him go.

Representatives from all four branches of the military lined a red carpet laid out to the plane that for this one last flight has its call sign switched to Special Air Mission 28000.

Obama took his wife by the hand as they walked to the stairs. As they neared, he put his hand on the small of her back and led her up.

They turned for one final wave together.

Within minutes, the plane slowly pulled away.