About four years after leaving office, Donald Trump returned to the White House today (Wednesday, Nov. 13) to meet, as president-elect, with Joe Biden.
Watch the meeting:
Trump arrived around 6:00 p.m. (Greek time, 11:00 a.m. in Washington, D.C.) for the meeting. He was alone because Melania Trump cited unfinished business.
“Well, Mr. President-elect, former president, Donald,” Biden said as Trump sat next to him in the Oval Office, “congratulations.” The two leaders then shook hands with cameras capturing the truly historic moment.
Trump responded, “Politics is hard and, in many cases, it’s not very nice, but today is nice and I appreciate it.”
The president-elect also thanked Biden for the transition of power, saying it would happen “as smoothly as possible.”
“We can facilitate, whatever you need,” Biden commented, saying they would have a chance to talk about it at today’s meeting.
CNN notes that Jill Biden, who was present at the president-elect’s arrival at the White House, gave Trump a handwritten letter to Melania Trump congratulating her, and also expressed an intention to help with the transition.
The first meeting
This is the traditional first meeting between the president who will take over on Jan. 20 and the outgoing one. Then the two sides’ working groups will coordinate the dozens of issues, legal and otherwise, arising from the transition of power from one to the other.
Biden has pledged a “peaceful and coordinated” transition of power, despite the expectation of reversals in his policies.
Donald Trump is making a strong return to the spotlight, poised to reshape the US political landscape. Starting with the White House meeting, Trump appears determined to bring changes to the basic structures of American governance, as evidenced by his choices for the central positions in the new administration.
It is Trump’s first appearance in the White House since his defeat in the 2020 election when he left without handing over power to Joe Biden who had then won the election. The then-losing Trump had not organized a similar visit by Biden, and did not even attend his inauguration ceremony.
For Trump, today’s meeting is a kind of political “revenge”, as his four-year removal from the White House concludes with a return to the top and a planned possible visit to Capitol Hill, where Republicans now retain control of the Senate and are also claiming a majority in the House of Representatives.
With the Supreme Court bolstered by three appointments of conservative justices, Trump will have increased leeway in his second term, determining the future of the country in key areas of American politics.
