Joe and Jill arrive in Nantucket with Hunter and baby Beau for Thanksgiving holiday

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden – followed by their family members – arrived on Nantucket Tuesday night for their traditional Thanksgiving family holiday. 

Son Hunter carried baby Beau as the family disembarked Air Force One. He was joined by wife Melissa Cohen wearing a blue plaid shawl.  

The president sported a brown leather jacket over a blue suit, while Dr. Biden kept it casual with white sneakers and dark green suit and white top. Daughter Ashley wore jeans and carried a large tote.

The Biden clan will spend the week eating turkey and talking about the 2024 presidential race at the same luxurious 13-acre estate they stayed on last year – owned by billionaire businessman turned philanthropist David Rubenstein. 

Biden has said the holidays – a time when the extended family is together – is when they’ll have serious talks about another White House bid. 

‘I hope Jill and I get a little time to actually sneak away for a week’ to discuss running for a second term, the president said earlier this year at a press conference. 

THE BIDEN FAMILY ARRIVES: (from left) President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Ashley Biden, Melissa Cohen, baby Beau Biden and Hunter Biden step off Air Force One for their Nantucket Thanksgiving break Tuesday night 

Hunter Biden (right) and baby Beau Biden (left) arrive in Nantucket Tuesday night for the Thanksgiving holiday

The Bidens will once again camp out at the luxurious Nantucket compound owned by billionaire businessman turned philanthropist David Rubenstein – the same place they stayed last year for the holiday

President Joe Biden (left) gestures as he and First Lady Jill Biden (right) arrive in Nantucket Tuesday night for their Thanksgiving holiday 

Melissa Cohen (left), baby Beau Biden (center) and Hunter Biden (right) arrive in Nantucket Tuesday night for the traditional Biden Thanksgiving trip 

President Joe Biden (center right) and First Lady Jill Biden (center left) walk from the motorcade Tuesday night to Air Force One as they departed Washington, D.C. for Nantucket for the Thanksgiving holiday 

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden talk with the greeters on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews before departing Tuesday night for their Thanksgiving holiday on Nantucket, Massachusetts 

First Lady Jill Biden (right) grabs the hand of one of the greeters as she and President Joe Biden (left) departed Washington Tuesday night for Nantucket to spend the Thanksgiving with their extended family 

A patrol boat goes by the residence the Biden family will stay for the Thanksgiving holiday, owned by billionaire David Rubenstein

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One Tuesday evening at Joint Base Andrews and heads to Nantucket for Thanksgiving 

Military officials salute to Air Force One as the president and first lady departed D.C. for Nantucket

Preparations started days ago for the first family’s arrival.  A large military cargo plane was at the town’s airport on Sunday, carrying the equipment necessary to secure the president for his stay.

On Monday, a fleet of Massachusetts state police motorcycles and SUVs drove off the ferry and onto the town’s main drag to be on hand for Biden’s visit. 

Hundreds of people follow the president wherever he goes – Secret Service agents, support staff, and members of the military. They’ll lock down the area around Rubenstein’s 13,000 square foot home while the Bidens are in residence. 

On Tuesday, some of the motorcade’s vehicles were situated in the airport’s parking lot, while others were already assembled on the tarmac. A remote radar installation was up and running on the other side of Nantucket Memorial Airport. 

The estate is located down a winding gravel road, where police vehicles were stationed. 

Another view of the expansive mansion that the Bidens are renting in Nantucket for the Thanksgiving holiday – where the president is expected to speak to his family about a 2024 run 

Some of the motorcade’s many vehicles were parked at a parking lot at the Nantucket Memorial Airport, awaiting the first family’s arrival Tuesday night 

A remote radar installation was up and running on the other side of Nantucket Memorial Airport

Military equipment was spotted all around the Nantucket Memorial Airport Tuesday evening, hours before the Bidens were set to arrive 

Staircases were set up at the tarmac at the Nantucket Memorial Airport in preparation for Air Force One to touch down for the Bidens’ Thanksgiving holiday 

One of the motorcade’s telltale vehicles was parked in the airport’s parking lot in the hours before the Biden clan was set to arrive 

Military equipment was spotted at the Nantucket Memorial Airport late Tuesday afternoon in advance of the Bidens arriving on the tony Massachusetts island 

It’s unclear if the first family’s puppy, Commander, will be joining them although the president hinted the dog might be present.

‘The only red wave this season is going to be a German Shepherd, Commander — knocks over the cranberry sauce on our table,’ he said on Monday when he pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey. His remark was a poke at Republicans, who did not pick up as many House seats as predicted in the midterm election. 

It’s also unclear exactly which members of the family will be joining the first couple. Last year Hunter Biden, wife Melissa Cohen and son Beau Biden were on hand. Hunter’s children from his first marriage – Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy – were also on the island. As were Natalie and Hunter Jr., the children of the late Beau Biden.

But Naomi Biden married Peter Neal on Saturday. Jill Biden, on Monday, appeared to reveal they were on their honeymoon to the island nation of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. It’s where Prince William and Kate Middleton had their honeymoon.

‘So, they went on a honeymoon … in the Seychelles,’ the first lady could be heard saying at a ‘Friendsgiving’ for the troops at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. 

Massachusetts state troopers arriving ahead of President Biden’s visit to Nantucket

It’s unclear if the Bidens’ puppy Commander will join the family on Nantucket, Commander was on the Truman balcony on Monday – with Biden granddaughter Natalie and grandson Beau – during the annual turkey pardoning

President Joe Biden shops on Nantucket last year with granddaughter Maisy (in red coat) and grandson Hunter Jr. (right)

President Biden shopping in a bookstore in Nantucket last year

David Rubenstein’s 13-acre compound where the Bidens are staying

On Nantucket, the Bidens are expected to, as they did last year, attend the town’s Christmas tree lighting on Friday evening. Last year they also had lunch in town and walked around for some holiday shopping. 

The president will call American troops stationed overseas on Thanksgiving Day. 

The Bidens have been going to Nantucket for 46 years since Biden was a senator. The first couple are scheduled to return to the White House on Sunday.

In his 2017 memoir ‘Promise me Dad,’ Biden wrote that Thanksgiving in 1975 was the first holiday he and his now-wife Jill spent together, going to Nantucket with his young sons Beau and Hunter for a little bonding time.

They rarely have missed a holiday on Nantucket since. 

The island became a spot of many memories for the family. Beau proposed to his future wife Hallie at the town’s 2001 Christmas tree lighting and married her at a downtown church. 

One of the few Thanksgivings the Bidens missed in Nantucket was in 2015, which took place about six months after Beau Biden died. The family went to Rome instead. They also skipped going in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. 

‘We had some great years in that span, and we had some lousy years, but whatever was happening, whatever bumps and bruises we were suffering, we put it all aside and celebrated Thanksgiving in Nantucket,’ the president wrote in his memoir. 

‘The holiday trip was a constant in our grandchildren’s lives from the time they were aware, and they made it clear how much it meant to them.’

While on the island, the Bidens are staying at Rubenstein’s $20million 13-acre compound on Nantucket Harbor. Biden has previously stayed at Rubenstein’s place on Nantucket, including in 2014 when he was vice president. 

Exclusives pictures from DailyMail.com show a sprawling property sit on the island’s secluded inner harbor with gorgeous views of the water as the sun sets in the background. 

Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein has friends on both sides of the political aisle including President Joe Biden, who is staying at his Nantucket home for Thanksgiving. The two men were honored at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy Gala in New York in November 2017 

Rubenstein bought the waterfront property in 2000 for his now ex-wife Alice and their three children. He tore down the existing house and put up a 13,000-square-foot home which features a tennis court, swimming pool and private dock.

The location of the house is historic Abram’s Point off the Polpis Road – named after one of the last surviving Native American Wampanoag race, Abram Quary.

Like Biden, Rubenstein grew up in a middle-class, blue-collar family and originally started his career in government service. But he left that path to form a private equity company that would make him a billionaire many times over.  

Along the way, Rubenstein made friends with the rich and the powerful and on both sides of the political aisle: George H.W. Bush was an adviser to his company while Jimmy Carter is a close friend (who’s also stayed at Rubenstein’s Nantucket home). 

And billionaire businessman has even admitted his regrets – and financial loses – that include turning down opportunities from Mark Zuckerberg to invest in Facebook and from Jeff Bezos to invest in Amazon. 

Rubenstein’s company – the private equity firm The Carlyle Group worth $293 billion – has come under fire at times for its business practices but Rubenstein, who has a net worth of $4.5 billion according to Forbes, has reshaped his image, become one of the most visible philanthropists in the world, buying copies of the Magna Carter and the Emmancipation Proclamation in what he’s called acts of ‘patriotic philanthropy. 

Rubenstein has reportedly boasted to friends that he only spends 12 days a year at the Nantucket estate. A rock on his front lawn reads: ‘I’d rather be working.’ 

He admits he’s a work-a-holic.

‘If I were forced to relax in conventional ways I’m convinced I’d have a heart attack,’ he told The Washington Post in 2003. ‘I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke, I don’t play golf.’ 

Massachusetts state police arrive on the island, which has a heavy security presence

The Bidens are staying at Rubenstein’s $20million 13-acre compound on Nantucket Harbor

Naomi Biden married Peter Neal at the White House on Saturday and they are believed to be on their honeymoon in the Seychelles – they are pictured with the president and first lady at the White House on Saturday

President Biden and his family are expected to attend the town’s Christmas tree lighting on Friday night, as they did last year (above)

Jill Biden shopping on Nantucket last year

Biden ran for president as a symbol and representative of the middle class and has come under fire for staying at the home of Rubenstein, whose company, the Carlyle Group, has been subject of controversy and conspiracy theories.

Private equity firms are companies that take struggling companies that are not traded on the stock exchange and raise cash, which they then re-invest in those companies with the goal of making them profitable.

These firms would then try to get a handsome return on their investment by either offering the company to the public which can buy shares, selling the company, or recapitalization.

Rubenstein cofounded The Carlyle Group in 1987 with William Conway Jr and Daniel D’Aniello and managed the company’s advisers, which included George H.W. Bush. He now serves as non-executive co-chairman of the company.

All three co-founders became billionaires after building the company from the ground up. They raised money from investors and used it to purchase companies – early on they focused on defense companies – and then sold them for profit.

Rubenstein also indicated the rich need to pay more in taxes, saying ‘taxes in the United States are not completely fair for anyone.’

But he’s also said that taxing billionaires like himself wouldn’t generate enough income to help the federal government wipe out its debt. 

‘I don’t think all of a sudden a wealth tax, for example, would solve all of our society’s problems, if one could ever actually be implemented,’ Rubenstein told CNBC during the 2020 presidential campaign about Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposal.

‘If you tax the upper income, there aren’t enough of those people to really make a wealth distribution effect that’s going to be significant. There just aren’t enough highly wealthy people,’ he added.

Rubenstein now gives speeches and hosts a show for Bloomberg TV. He also serves as chairman of the Washington Economic Club. He chairs the Kennedy Center Honors when it airs on CBS. 

Among his regrets, Rubenstein said he was once offered the opportunity to meet Mark Zuckerberg and invest in Facebook before Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard but decided against it. 

He also said he turned down a 20% stake in Amazon during the early years of the company. He’s also said he regrets not investing in Twitter and turning down an opportunity to buy the Washington Post before Bezos purchased the newspaper. 

Before cofounding The Carlyle group, Rubenstein practiced law in New York between 1973 and 1975. He served as chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. 

Rubenstein then went on to serve as an official for President Jimmy Carter’s Administration as a deputy domestic policy adviser to the President. 

He told the New York Times how he got involved in private equity: ‘I read that Bill Simon had done a leveraged buyout in the early 1980s where he bought Gibson Greeting Cards and made $80 million on a $1 million investment. I didn’t know what a leveraged buyout was, but it sounded more attractive than practicing law.’

Rubenstein’s business practices have come under fire. 

John Oliver, in a segment on his HBO show, accused him of buying up mobile home parks and sharply increasing the rent on tenants, who often can’t afford the increase or the high cost to move the home. 

He was also subject to conspiracy theories after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On the day of the attack, he was attending a conference sponsored by the Carlyle Group in Washington DC where Osama bin Laden’s brother was also in attendance, which led to unfounded gossip the compnay was somehow complicitous. To calm matters, Rubenstein returned the bin Ladens’ $2 million investment in the Carlyle Group. 

In addition to promoting his causes, Rubenstein also often talks about his personal story.  

He grew up the son of a postal worker and homemaker in Baltimore, earning high enough marks to attend Duke University as an undergrad, then the University of Chicago for law school.

He has three children – Alexandra, Gabrielle, and Andrew – and has said he’s given them Ivy League educations but did not give them trust funds. 

He gives millions to charity  – including $7.5million for the repair of the Washington Monument after the 2011 earthquake and $4.5 million to the National Zoo for its Giant Panda program. 

And in 2016, he donated $25 million for a pancreatic cancer center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and has given $100 million to his alma mater Duke University.

He has made large gifts in recent years to Washington’s cultural institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center, where he is chairman. 

David Rubenstein is a billionaire businessman turned philanthropist

David Rubenstein pictured November 21 with Nancy Pelosi in D.C.

David Rubenstein and his now ex-wife Alice at the 2015 state dinner for Chinese President President Xi Jinping

Like Bill Gates he is among the list of billionaires that have pledged to give at least half their money to philanthropic causes in their lifetime as part of The Giving Pledge. 

A history buff, he practices what he calls ‘patriotic philanthropy’ to preserve historical artificats.  

In 2014, Rubenstein donated $12.3 million to restore Arlington House, the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The columned home, originally built as a monument to George Washington between 1802 and 1818, was restored to its historical appearance in 1860, before the start of the U.S. Civil War.

Rubenstein said the site crowns the most sacred land in America but needed major repairs.

The money he donated to National Park Foundation will also go toward fixing the grounds and slave quarters, and overhauling the site’s museum exhibits.

‘The goal is to remind people of American history,’ Rubenstein said at the time. ‘I think when you’re restoring history, you should remind people of the good and the bad.’

In 2016, Rubenstein donated $18million to fix up the Lincoln Memorial. The money was used to fix the memorial’s roof, clean the marble and improve accessibility by adding a second elevator. 

Rubenstein said his admiration for Lincoln drew him to this project. ‘Lincoln deserves to have his memorial in tip-top shape,’ he said in a phone interview at the time. 

In 2007 Rubenstein bought a copy of the Magna Carta for $21.3million, which he has loaned to the National Archives. The Magna Carta bears the seal of King Edward I and is dated 1297. It is one of 17 known handwritten copies of the text that established a tradition for the rule of law that even the king would honour.

Rubenstein told the Times of his philanthropy: ‘In the end, you have to say what is the purpose of life, and what are you doing here? Everybody has to ask themselves that question. What are you doing that makes your existence on the face of the earth justified? What am I doing? Well, maybe fixing up companies isn’t such a great thing. It does add to the economy, you could argue. But giving away the money, reminding people of history, is one thing that I’m now a little bit focused on.’