President-elect Donald Trump met with President Joe Biden at the White House Wednesday, a strikingly cordial reunion between the longtime political rivals.
“Well, Mr. President-elect, and former President, Donald, congratulations,” Biden said in the Oval Office, noting that he was “looking forward to … a smooth transition.”
“So, welcome,” Biden added. “Welcome back.”
Trump was similarly cordial in his response.
“Politics is tough, and in many cases, it’s not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much,” Trump said. “A transition that’s so smooth, it’ll be as smooth as it can get.”
WATCH: President Donald J. Trump and President Biden meet in the Oval Office pic.twitter.com/ZD9xPt4nyo
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 13, 2024
After Trump finished speaking, members of the media — who were only allowed in the Oval Office for these brief opening moments — began shouting questions at the two presidents, who shared a knowing smirk amid the cacophony.
Trump arrived at the White House after a triumphant meeting with House Republicans, where he touted Republicans’ electoral victories and threw his support behind House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Wednesday’s meeting comes at the end of an often-fiery relationship between the two presidents. Biden successfully campaigned against Trump in 2020 by repeatedly calling him a threat to democracy. Biden’s successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, picked up and intensified in the final days of her presidential campaign, calling Trump and his supporters “fascists.”
Biden, who repeatedly claimed that he was the only candidate capable of defeating Trump, withdrew from the presidential race over the summer after a disastrous debate performance against Trump highlighted the president’s age and faltering mental state.
Trump handily defeated Harris at the box office, sweeping all seven swing states and 312 electoral votes.
Though it is tradition for outgoing presidents to meet with their successors in the White House, today’s meeting was unique. Not since Grover Cleveland’s 1892 defeat of Benjamin Harrison has an outgoing president handed power over to a former president.
While Trump and Biden kept with tradition, their First Ladies did not. Melania Trump declined Jill Biden’s invitation to the traditional First Ladies’ tea, reportedly a response to the Biden administration’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.
