Joe Biden welcomed Donald Trump back to the White House on Wednesday, a display of civility toward a bitter rival who failed to extend him the same courtesy four years ago.
The US president and the president-elect shook hands in front of a blazing fire in the Oval Office and promised a smooth transition – a sharp contrast to Trump’s refusal to recognize his 2020 defeat.
Biden, 81, congratulated Trump, 78, saying, “Welcome back” and offering brief opening remarks to the man he has repeatedly described as a threat to democracy.
Biden, who dropped out of the election in July but lost to Trump last week to his successor Kamala Harris, said he is “looking forward to a smooth transition” and “to make sure we can accommodate you.” Promised to do everything. ,
As the two presidents, who have a combined age of 159, shook hands, Biden was seen looking down while Trump leaned forward and looked into his eyes.
Trump incited the mob that attacked the US Capitol in 2021 and ran a brutal and divisive election campaign this year — but tried to strike a compassionate tone on his return visit to the White House.
Trump said, “Politics is hard and in many cases it’s not a very nice world. It’s a nice world today and I appreciate it very much.”
Trump said the transfer of power would happen “as smoothly as you can” — despite the fact that his transition team has not signed some key legal documents before his inauguration as president on January 20.
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Absent from the occasion was First Lady Melania Trump, who was a shadowy presence on the campaign trail and spent much of Trump’s first term away from the White House.
Outgoing first lady Jill Biden also joined Mr. Biden in welcoming Trump and gave Mr. Trump a handwritten letter of congratulations from Mrs. Trump, the White House said.
The White House said the only people in the room for the conversation after the handshake were Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients and Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wills.
During the meeting, Biden was expected to press Trump to continue US support for Ukraine’s war against Russia, which Republicans have questioned.
Biden’s Oval Office invitation reinstated the presidential transition tradition that Trump broke when he lost the 2020 election, refusing to sit down with Biden or even attend the inauguration .
But by the time Trump took his last flight from the White House lawn on January 20, 2021, he was condemned by many in his own party for instigating the attack on the Capitol.
That period of humiliation soon ended, however, as Republicans returned to Trump’s side, recognizing the billionaire’s unparalleled electoral power as the head of their right-wing movement.
Third period?
Trump is entering his second term with a near-complete grip on his party and is expected to capture both houses of Congress — while Democrats are in disarray.
Before the White House visit, Trump addressed Republicans from the House of Representatives in a Washington hotel.
An agitated Trump suggested he might even be up for a third term in office – which would be a violation of the US Constitution.
“I suspect I’m not going to run again unless you say, ‘That’s cool, we’ve got to think of something else,'” he said, eliciting some laughs.
Trump, the former reality TV star who has promised to be a “dictator on day one,” is moving quickly to fill out his administration, and picking up a number of ultra-loyalists.
She was accompanied at the meeting with Republicans by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, whom they named on Tuesday as the head of a new group aimed at cutting government spending.
He also nominated Fox News host and Army veteran Pete Hegseth as his incoming Secretary of Defense. An opponent of so-called “woke” ideology in the armed forces, Hegseth has little experience managing the world’s most powerful military.
Trump nominated South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem — an aide who famously wrote about shooting her dog because it did not respond to training — to head the Department of Homeland Security.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)