President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, longtime political rivals, met on Wednesday for the first time since Trump won back the White House last week and both promised a smooth transfer of power in January.
The two American leaders sat side by side before a roaring fire in the Oval Office, a peaceful scene that belied tensions between them.
The meeting ended after roughly two hours, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“It was a substantive meeting,” she told reporters. “They discussed important national security and domestic policy issues facing the nation and the world.”
Biden said that support for Ukraine was in the United States’ national security interest because a strong and stable Europe would keep America from being dragged into war, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. Trump has pledged to end the Russia-Ukraine war quickly without explaining how.
Trump told the New York Post he and Biden “talked very much about the Middle East” during their conversation. “I wanted to know his views on where we are,” Trump said. “And he gave them to me, he was very gracious,” the Post quoted Trump as saying.
A Democrat, Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election but dropped out of the 2024 race in July after a disastrous debate with the Republican Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris became the candidate but lost to Trump.
“We’re looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition, do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, what you need,” Biden said. “Welcome, welcome back.”
“Politics is tough, and it’s many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and I appreciate very much a transition that’s so smooth it’ll be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that, Joe,” said Trump, who takes over on Jan. 20.
Reporters shouted questions but were quickly ushered out.
The traditional courtesy of welcoming the president-elect into the Oval Office is one that Trump did not extend when Biden won in 2020.
It was a sharp contrast to the criticism the two men have hurled at each other for years. Their respective teams hold vastly different positions on policies from climate change to Russia to trade.
During the meeting, Biden pushed his priorities for Congress’ lame-duck session, including funding the government and providing additional funds for disaster relief, Jean-Pierre said. Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients and Trump’s, Susie Wiles, joined the meeting.
“He believes in the norms, he believes in our institution, he believes in the peaceful transfer of power,” the White House spokesperson said of Biden’s decision to invite Trump.
First lady Jill Biden joined Biden in greeting Trump on his arrival. The White House said she gave Trump a handwritten letter of congratulations for his wife, Melania Trump, and “expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition.”
Biden, 81, has portrayed Trump as a threat to democracy, while Trump, 78, has portrayed Biden as incompetent. Trump made false claims of widespread fraud after losing the 2020 election to Biden.
TRUMP MEETS REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS
Trump celebrated his victory earlier in the day with Republicans in the House of Representatives who have a good chance of maintaining control of the chamber as Nov. 5 election results trickle in.
“Isn’t it nice to win? It’s nice to win. It’s always nice to win,” Trump said. “The House did very well.”
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk joined Trump at the meeting with Republican lawmakers. Trump on Tuesday named Musk to a role co-leading a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, handing even more influence to the world’s richest man who donated millions of dollars to help Trump get elected.
Outside the White House gates, signs of the impending power transfer were evident with construction already under way for the stands for VIP guests to sit during the parade that will take place after Trump is inaugurated. Dozens of White House staff members gathered on an outdoor stairwell to glimpse Trump’s arrival.
TRANSITION PARTIALLY STALLED
Although Biden intended to use the meeting to show continuity, the transition itself has partially stalled.
Trump’s team, which has already announced some members of the incoming president’s cabinet, has yet to sign agreements that would lead to office space and government equipment as well as access to government officials, facilities and information, according to the White House.
“The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris Administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act,” said Brian Vance, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, referring to the law that governs the transfer of power.
Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Partnership for Public Service’s Centre for Presidential Transition, a non-profit that advises incoming administrations, said the agreement underscores that the United States only has one president at a time and includes pledges to sign ethics pacts not to profit off information provided in the transition.
“That needs to be signed for interaction to begin with federal agencies,” she said. “Everything is hinging on that.”
The meeting was the first substantive one between the two men since their debate in June. Biden’s poor performance then heightened concerns about his age among fellow Democrats and led to his departure from the race. Harris became the Democratic nominee, running a truncated campaign that ended in her loss.
Biden, Trump and Harris also appeared together in New York on Sept. 11 at the site of the 2001 plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
(REUTERS)
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