On Wednesday, Nov. 13, President-elect Donald Trump met with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office at the While House to discuss transition plans.
Their meeting began with Biden telling the President-elect “Welcome back” in an apparent nod to his previous stint as Commander in chief. Biden also promised Trump, “Everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated” with regards to the transition process into the Trump White House.
According to Trump, they discussed foreign policy issues including Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East. Their meeting went on for more than two hours, and signaled a return to tradition. The president-elect historically meets with the sitting president after an election victory to plan the transition, but Trump decided to forgo the meeting in 2020, insisting that he was the true president-elect. In the background was the fireplace, the fire raging and brilliant. The two men were flanked by busts of former New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hanging on the wall above them were portraits of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson, imposing figures who occupied the White House before.
This meeting and Trump’s victory came on the heels of a contentious campaign. Before Harris entered the race, Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee. Trump and Biden made hurling insults at one another quite a habit, between Trump’s labels of “crooked” and “senile” and Biden’s claims of Trump’s “unfitness” and “fascist” tendencies.
The meeting was certainly a deviation from the usual meetings between the two. The last time Trump and Biden were in the same room was their debate on June 27. The environment during that debate was hostile, to say the least, with the usual attacks flying across the stage. It was refreshing to see such unity in the White House in a time where it feels like unity is hard to come by.
