Donald Trump, the most petty president in history, delivered Joe Biden one more snub today, forcing him to charter his own plane to fly from Delaware to Washington D.C. instead of authorizing an Air Force jet.

The president-elect flew the short hop from his home state after a tear-stained speech eulogizing his dead son Beau on a converted Boeing 737 – then as he landed at Joint Base Andrews taxied past an idle Air Force Boeing 757 on the tarmac.

The snub was the latest in one-term Trump’s defiant refusal to acknowledge his successor.

In contrast the Obama administration sent an Air Force plane to New York for the Trumps in January 2017.

Just as the Biden family landed, the White House released a 20-minute farewell video from Trump, which did not mention his successor by name or congratulate him on his victory.

On Wednesday, the sore-loser Trumps will fly out of Washington without greeting the Bidens, with the president holding his own farewell ‘ceremony’ at Andrews before getting on Air Force One to his Mar-a-Lago estate.

In contrast, Biden set an emotional tone as he departed Delaware, crying as he spoke about his late son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015.

Biden recalled the 2009 inauguration day – and how important it was that a black man became president of the United States.

‘And here we are today – my family and I – about to return to Washington to meet a black woman, of south Asian descent, to be sworn in as president and vice president of the United States,’ Biden said, referring to his running mate, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

‘As I told Beau on that station waiting for Barack – and Hunter and Ashley – I said don’t tell me things can’t change,’ Biden continued.

‘They can and they do.’

 

 

He said this hopeful mentality was thanks to Delaware, a state he said had given his parents work when they needed it – his family left Scranton, PA, when he was 10 – and had helped him heal from the loss of his first wife Neila and baby daughter Naomi in a car crash in 1972.

‘That’s America. That’s Delaware. A place of hope and light and limitless possibilities,’ Biden said.

He asked the audience to excuse his emotion as he talked about his adopted home state, one that gave his parents ‘a home and a livelihood when they needed it most.’

And, he said, Delaware sent him as a ‘kid’ to the U.S. Senate.

Biden was elected at age 29 and sworn-in, as the Constitution permits, at age 30.

‘When I die, Delaware will be written on my heart and the hearts of all of the Bidens,’ he said.

‘We love you all, you’ve been there for us in the good and the bad, you never walked away,’ Biden continued.

‘And I am proud – proud, proud, proud to be a son of Delaware and I am even more proud to be standing here doing this from the Major Beau Biden facility.’

That’s when the president-elect wished his son would have been the Biden to make it to the White House.

Before his death, Beau Biden had encouraged his father to run for president in 2016, instead of letting Hillary Clinton become the heir to President Barack Obama’s legacy.

After Beau Biden died, Joe Biden sat out the 2016 race, which saw Clinton lose to Republican President Donald Trump.

Biden decided to run for president in 2020 after watching Trump handle the racial violence in Charlottesville in 2017.

Biden was introduced by Delaware’s Democratic Gov. John Carney, who said the president-elect was ‘born for this moment.’

‘I have one particular feeling that’s hard to describe and it’s one that so many Americans haven’t felt for so long,’ Carney said, explaining that that feeling was ‘hope.’

Carney also spoke of Beau Biden’s death, calling him Joe Biden’s ‘pride and joy.’ ‘And Delaware’s as well,’ Carney said.

‘He has picked himself up and brought us along with him,’ Carney said of the incoming president. ‘Now he stands ready to pull the country out of this morass out of the chaos and onto higher ground.’

At Wednesday’s swearing-in ceremony, Biden’s inaugural address will center on unifying the country in the post-Trump era.

Biden is expected to speak for between 20 and 30 minutes.

When Biden lands in Washington, he’ll arrive at a city filled with National Guard troops and military checkpoints, as the main downtown arteries and Capitol Hill are all blocked off on the heels of the January 6 insurrection attempt.

The National Mall, which usually hosts major crowd for the swearing-in, has been blocked off to the public, with a flag display taking the place of humans.

Biden will be joined by Harris for a 5:30 p.m. event at the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflection Pool to honor the lives lost in the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. hit the dismal mark of 400,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Biden and Harris’ inauguration was always going to have a smaller human footprint because they’ve been strict about COVID-19 protocols.

But the MAGA mob’s siege made security even tighter.

While President Obama sent President-elect Trump an Air Force One-type jet for his family’s Washington arrival, Biden took a white and gray charter jet – a Boeing BBJ, based on the Boeing 737 – between Delaware and D.C.

As Biden’s white and gray private plane landed at Andrews, it passed one of the government planes used as Air Force One on the tarmac.

Trump’s refusal to send Biden a military jet was largely seen as a snub.

The president also refused to meet with Biden, a normal part of the transition.

First lady Melania Trump paid the same courtesy to Jill Biden, refusing to give her a tour of the residence, also a transition tradition.

The White House’s chief usher Timothy Harleth will greet the Bidens at the White House instead of the outgoing first family.

Even this week, The New York Times reported Monday, Trump was telling allies that he was the true winner of the election.

Trump will fly to West Palm Beach, Florida Wednesday and arrive there before noon, so he can fly onboard ‘Air Force One’ one final time.

The Air Force One label applies to the president’s plane, no matter what make or model.

But it is security that now defines the capital and the Capitol itself.

Twelve National Guardsmen have now been removed from the presidential inauguration security mission after they were found to have ties with right-wing militia groups or posted extremist views online, officials say.

The officials, a senior intelligence official and an Army official briefed on the matter, did not say which fringe group the Guard members belonged to or what unit they served in.

They did say, however, that here was no threat to Joe Biden.

Neither the National Guard or Secret Service would comment on the removal of the Guardsmen.

Their removal from the massive security presence at the nation’s capital comes as the FBI worked to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops headed to the area for Biden’s inauguration amid concerns of insider threats in the wake of the Capitol riots.

It comes after the National Guard chief, General Daniel Hokanson, said earlier on Tuesday that the 25,000 armed troops protecting DC were ‘trained and ready for anything’ and he wasn’t concerned about the potential for insider threat.

The National Guard said troops from all 50 states are supporting law enforcement for the inauguration.

Gen. Hokanson said the vetting of his troops was standard practice but was heightened given the large number of Guardsman brought in to fortify DC in the wake of the insurrection at Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.

In addition to the 25,000 National Guardsman, the Pentagon also authorized 750 active-duty troops with expertise in chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological and explosive weapons to provide additional security in the capital.

‘We’ve done a lot of work. We’re making sure that our folks are trained and ready for anything they’re going to be asked to do. Our folks are always trained in deescalation techniques,’ Gen Hokanson told NBC’s Today on Tuesday.