The president congratulated Trump on his win and said he looks forward to a smooth transition. Trump expressed appreciation for the president’s remarks.
WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden is meeting with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday in the Oval Office, continuing the tradition during the transition period.
Shortly before 11 a.m., Trump returned to the White House for the first time in four years following a decisive victory in the Nov. 5 election. His win capped a significant comeback after losing his reelection bid to Biden in 2020.
In brief remarks before their meeting, the president congratulated Trump and said his administration will help accommodate the president-elect’s needs in the transition.
“Congratulations and I look forward to having a smooth transition,” Biden said.
Trump thanked the president, adding, “Politics is tough, and it’s many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today.”
“[A transition] will be as smooth as it can get and I very much appreciate that, Joe,” Trump said.
First Lady Jill Biden joined the president in greeting Trump when he arrived at the White House and gave the president-elect a handwritten letter of congratulations to Melania Trump, according to a pool report. The future first lady did not attend the meeting on Wednesday.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the president and his team are focused on ensuring the transition is both effective and efficient.
In a press briefing on Nov. 12, Jean-Pierre said that Biden is hosting this meeting “because he believes in the norms.”
“He said the American people deserve this. They deserve a peaceful transfer of power.”
On Nov. 10, 2016, President Barack Obama invited then-President-elect Trump to the White House as part of the tradition.
However, following his dispute over the results of the 2020 election, Trump did not extend a similar invitation to President-elect Joe Biden.
The upcoming meeting between Biden and Trump is expected to be cordial, reflecting a significant shift in the relationship between the two presidents.
Biden repeatedly called Trump an “existential threat” to democracy, accusing him of instigating the Capitol Hill riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump, in turn, referred to Biden as “the worst president in the history of the United States, by far.”
