Former President Donald Trump quickly departed Washington on Thursday after pleading not guilty to four federal charges related to his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election.
“It’s a sad day for America,” Mr. Trump said as he arrived on the tarmac at Reagan National Airport, where his Boeing 757 was waiting.
Mr. Trump, 77, called the indictment, his third in four months, “a persecution of a political opponent [and] the persecution of the person that’s leading by very, very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot.”
Mr. Trump is the undisputed leader in the GOP presidential primary and is crushing all his opponents by double digits in the polls. In some general election polls, he leads President Biden by a few percentage points and trails him by a few points in others.
“So if you can’t beat him, you persecute him or you prosecuted him,” Mr. Trump said. “We can’t let this happen in America, thank you very much.”
Mr. Trump traveled Thursday from his summer home at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, to Washington for his first court appearance on the Jan. 6 charges. He was processed by the U.S. Marshals Service, which included taking his fingerprints and giving personal information. A mugshot was not taken because his picture is publicly available according to the Marshal’s Service.
Mr. Trump provided commentary on the state of Washington’s streets, which he viewed out his SUV window as he drove to and from the airport.
Mr. Trump said he was saddened at “the decay, and all of the broken buildings and walls and the graffiti.”
“This is not the place that I left. It’s a very sad thing to see it,” he said.
