The meeting between the sitting President and their successor marks the beginning of a peaceful power transfer, culminating in the new President’s inauguration. In 2020, Trump denied Biden this meeting, refusing to accept his loss…reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden received President-elect Donald Trump to the Oval Office at the White House on Wednesday in a customary gesture marking the peaceful transfer of power that had not been shown to him four years ago by the latter.
“Welcome, welcome back,” Biden said to Trump at the start of their meeting.
“Politics is tough,” Trump responded. And it’s, in many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today. 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.”
The First Lady also joined Biden in greeting Trump upon his arrival at the White House. She gave Trump a handwritten congratulatory letter, which also conveyed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition.
White House Chief-of-Staff Jeff Zients and incoming White House Chief-of-Staff Susie Wiles attended the meeting, according to the White House.
The practice of the sitting President receiving their incoming successor signals the start of a peaceful transfer of power, which is completed with the inauguration of the new President on January 21 with the ceremonial swearing-in on the steps of the Capitol.
Trump had refused to accord Biden the same meeting in 2020, as he had refused to accept the verdict that he had lost. And, in fact, in January a crowd of his supporters had raided the Capitol to prevent a joint sitting of congress from certifying Biden’s victory. He had also refused to attend Biden’s inauguration and had left the same morning for his resort home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Biden also told Trump in remarks before the meeting that his administration would “do everything we can to make sure (of) accommodating what you need”.
The transition from one administration to another is a massive effort with over 4,000 federal government vacancies left by the outgoing administration to be filled by the incoming President and campaigns usually have a long and detailed transition plan ready much in advance.
Trump has started filling the top positions and has announced a string of nominees for the cabinet in the last few days — Pete Hegseth for secretary of defence, Kristi Noem for secretary of homeland security — and other positions in the White House like Susie Wiles as chief of staff and Mike Waltz as the national security adviser.
Melania boycotts tea invitation from Jill Biden
Melania Trump boycotted a meeting with Jill Biden, while their husbands held a traditional meeting at the White House on Wednesday.
Two hours before US President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden were to meet, the office of Melania Trump said in an X post, “Mrs Trump will not be attending today’s meeting at the White House.”
“Her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success,” it said.
Her office did not give a reason for her not taking up First Lady Jill Biden’s invitation for tea.
But it added, “In this instance, several unnamed sources in the media continue to provide false, misleading, and inaccurate information. Be discerning with your source of news.”
It did not specifically deny any of the reports about her not meeting Jill Biden.
The New York Post had reported on Monday that she was not going to the White House and quoted an unnamed “source familiar with Melania’s decision” as saying that she was miffed that Jill Biden’s husband authorised the raid on the Mara-a-Lago residence during which Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents went through her personal wardrobe.
The FBI raided the Trumps’ home in August 2022 looking for top secret documents that Trump allegedly took with him in contraversion of the Official Secrets Act.
Blinken due in Brussels to reassure EU allies
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken set out for a multi-country trip of which the first stop will be Brussels, where he is expected to provide reassurance to European allies on US support for Ukraine ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
According to a statement from the State Department on Tuesday, Blinken will be in Brussels, where the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and the European Union are headquartered, “for meetings with his Nato and European Union counterparts to discuss support for Ukraine in its defence against” Russia.
The trip comes in the waning days of Blinken being the Secretary of State, and as Trump had reportedly chosen Florida Senator Marco Rubio as the country’s top diplomat, Xinhua news agency reported.
Among Rubio’s tasks as the next Secretary of State will be fulfilling Trump’s promise of a quick resolution to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump has vowed to end the war within 24 hours after assuming office, but how he is going to achieve that remains to be seen.