Washington: President Joe Biden on Wednesday met President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, days after latter’s thumping and landslide victory in the US Presidential elections 2024.
The President and President-elect greeted each other with a handshake and indulged in a brief conversation.
Trump’s victor return to White House
Donald Trump made a victor’s return to Washington, visiting the White House for an Oval Office meeting with Democratic President Joe Biden and committing to a smooth transition of power as the Republican president-elect moves quickly to build out his new administration.
Biden congratulates Trump, promises smooth transition
“Donald, congratulations,” Biden said, greeting Trump with a handshake and adding that he looked “forward to a smooth transition.”
Trump thanks Biden for invitation
Trump made a similar pledge and expressed thanks to Biden for the invitation — one that Trump himself had not extended to Biden after losing the 2020 election.
“Thank you very much,” Trump said. “Politics is tough. And it’s, in many cases, not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today and I appreciate it very much.”
Trump meets Elon Musk
Trump, flying from Florida, arrived at a military base near the Capitol, meeting up with billionaire Elon Musk for a morning session with House Republicans as Trump prepares for a potentially unified Republican government and sweep of power.
Back in Washington for the first time since his election victory, Trump told the GOP lawmakers, “It’s nice to win.”
Trump received a standing ovation from House Republicans, many of whom took cellphone videos of him as ran through their party’s victories up and down the ballot, in what would be, under the constitutional limits, his final presidential election.
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say he’s good we got to figure something else,” Trump said to laughter from the lawmakers.
It’s a stunning return to the U.S. seat of government for the former president, who departed nearly four years ago a diminished, politically defeated leader after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol but is preparing to come back to power with what he and his GOP allies see as a mandate for governance.
“He is the comeback king,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., before Trump’s arrival. “We owe him a great debt of gratitude.”
The private meetings, including his sit-down with Biden, put in stark relief the former president’s comeback. Trump’s reemergence comes amid Republican congressional leadership elections, with the potential for him to place his imprint on the outcome.
Trump endorsed Johnson’s return to the speaker’s office with the president-elect saying he is with Johnson all the way, according to a person familiar with the remarks but not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting.
Musk has been spending much of his time at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate, and participating in discussions as the incoming Trump administration prepares to transition from Biden’s.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, was named by Trump to a government efficiency advisory role. Musk, Some close to Trump and his team now see Musk as the second most influential figure in Trump’s immediate orbit, after Susie Wiles, the campaign manager who is Trump’s incoming chief of staff.
Johnson has said Republicans are “ready to deliver on Trump’s ”America First” agenda.
With inputs from AP
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