WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump returned to Washington on Wednesday — entering the White House for the first time since he was voted out of office — to meet with President Joe Biden for a ceremony meant to signal the peaceful transfer of power.
The two men appeared briefly for photos, with Biden speaking first and calling for a smooth transition.
Trump responded that politics “is tough” but thanked the president for a smooth transition. “You’re welcome,” Biden responded. They did not respond to shouted questions from reporters.
Trump did not offer Biden the same meeting in 2020, as he refused to concede the election results and worked to delay Biden’s taking office. Vice President Kamala Harris conceded defeat last Wednesday before a crowd of supporters in Washington.
Trump was also greeted by first lady Jill Biden, who gave him a handwritten letter of congratulations for Melania Trump, which also expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition, according to her office.
One unanswered question is whether Vice President-elect JD Vance will be a part of Wednesday’s trip to Washington. As of Tuesday evening, a source familiar with discussions said, Vance has yet to hear from Harris about any kind of outreach about a potential visit or otherwise since the election last week.
Trump has been in Florida since Election Day, surrounded by allies and advisers as he begins rolling out a list of Cabinet and other prize appointments stacked with loyalists. Trump returns to Washington to bask in the glow of his party’s sweeping electoral success, having secured control of the Senate and possibly the House, too.
Trump addressed House Republicans before traveling to the White House, touting his decisive election victory last week.
“Isn’t it nice to win? It’s nice to win. It’s always nice to win. A lot of good friends in this room,” Trump said. “So you know we had like historic kind of numbers. Especially for the president, but we won’t get into that. But the House did very well.”
Trump could also meet with Senate Republicans, who were holding closed-door meetings Wednesday to elect a new leader.
The White House extended invitations to both Trumps, two White House officials said. In 2016, Melania Trump accepted the invitation and met with first lady Michelle Obama. This year, she did not accompany her husband.
Top staffers from the White House and Trump’s transition team are expected to meet, Biden and Trump officials said. Several of Trump’s senior staffers who will join him in the White House traveled with the incoming president’s motorcade this morning.
Trump on Wednesday announced more senior staff set to join his White House team: Dan Scavino as deputy chief of staff; Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser; James Blair as deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs; and Taylor Budowich as deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel.
Then-President Barack Obama invited Trump to meet at the White House two days after the 2016 election. The sitdown in the Oval Office lasted about 90 minutes, and Obama called it “an excellent conversation” that was “wide-ranging.” Biden, Obama’s vice president at the time, met with his successor, Mike Pence, as well. Six days later, the Bidens hosted the Pences at the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence.
After the 2020 election, Trump did not invite Biden for a visit as he refused to concede the election results. Instead, he largely refused to allow his administration to participate in the transfer of power, refusing to give incoming Biden officials access to government resources and information.
Biden has insisted that the peaceful transfer of power is critical and has vowed since Election Day that his administration would hand over the reins.
“Campaigns are a contest of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made,” Biden said last week. “You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
