1 more day: Obama in his final hours in the White House
WASHINGTON — Eight tumultuous years at the helm of American power have come and gone, and for President Barack Obama, this is finally the end.
The president spent his last full day Thursday at the White House before becoming an ex-president. The big decisions and grand pronouncements are all behind him, but Obama is still in charge until President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath at noon on Friday.
The White House left Obama’s schedule mostly empty for the day, saying he would use the time to pack up the home he and his family have lived in for most of a decade. The only events on his public calendar were his presidential daily briefing and his final weekly lunch with Vice-President Joe Biden in the president’s private dining room.
Only a skeleton staff remained Thursday at the White House, creating an eerily quiet feeling in the normally bustling West Wing. Photos of Obama and his family that for years have lined the walls of corridors in the West Wing were being taken down, with some to be transferred to Obama’s personal office, leaving big white spaces on the walls.