President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are meeting in the Oval Office, resuming a tradition that Trump himself flouted in 2020.
The two men, seated by a roaring fire, shook hands. Biden spoke first, calling for a “smooth transition” and telling Trump he will do “everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated.”
Trump followed by thanking Biden.
“Politics is tough, and it’s, in many cases, not a very nice world but it is a nice world today,” Trump said. “And I appreciate it very much. A transition that’s so smooth, it’ll be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that, Joe.”
They did not answer questions.
First lady Jill Biden joined President Biden in greeting Trump upon his arrival, according to the White House. She gave Trump a handwritten letter of congratulations for Melania Trump, which also expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition.
The first lady’s office confirmed that a joint invitation was extended to the Trumps to meet at the White House. But Melania Trump did not travel to Washington with her husband on Wednesday.
“Her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success,” Melania Trump’s office said in a statement.
In 2016, Michelle Obama hosted Melania Trump at the White House when then-President Barack Obama invited Trump just days after the election. The two men met for 90 minutes, and Obama called the conversation “excellent.”
Vice President Harris did not attend Wednesday’s meeting.
According to the White House, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and incoming White House chief of staff Susie Wiles are in the meeting with Trump and Biden.
After losing the 2020 election, Trump broke with two traditions that demonstrate American democracy’s peaceful transfer of power.
First, he declined to invite then-President-elect Biden to the White House in the weeks after the race while contending he hadn’t lost. Later, he skipped Biden’s inauguration, instead leaving Washington mere hours before the ceremony began.
But those customs returned as Trump arrived Wednesday at the White House.
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