President-elect Donald Trump met with President Joe Biden on Wednesday morning after a session with House Republicans, marking Trump’s first trip to Washington, D.C. since his decisive election win and as his administration rapidly takes shape.
Trump and Biden met in the Oval Office after the president extended an invitation to his successor. This is a traditional courtesy that was not extended to Biden by Trump in 2020, as he refused to concede defeat in the election. In 2016, Trump met with former President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and called it “a great honor.”
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“Politics is tough,” Trump told Biden during the photo op in front of a scrum of reporters after Biden extended a welcome. “And it’s in many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today. And I appreciate very much a transition that’s so smooth. It’ll be as smooth as it can get. And I very much appreciate that.”
Biden congratulated Trump and said he is “looking forward to a smooth transition … Welcome back.”
The two have not appeared together in public since the presidential debate this summer where they traded insults, with the president saying Trump has “the morals of an alley cat” and Trump suggesting Biden was so confused that he didn’t even realize what he’d just said. Ultimately, Biden delivered a performance deemed so disastrous that his campaign soon crumbled and he exited the race.
Earlier Wednesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson told gathered Republicans to say they owed Trump their gratitude, calling him a “comeback king” as the final House races are being called; the GOP is projected to win a narrow majority. Trump endorsed Johnson’s return as speaker in front of congressional Republicans, many of whom seemed starstruck, shooting cellphone footage of the incoming president.
At the early meeting, Trump hinted at possibly altering the Constitution to carry on his leadership after his second four-year term; U.S. presidents are allowed two terms, according to constitutional limits.
“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.
Elon Musk was in attendance, sitting among House Republicans. At one point, Trump heaped his praise on the tech CEO, a major financial booster of his campaign who now has a place in the incoming administration, helping lead a proposed new body to “dismantle government bureaucracy.” The SpaceX and Tesla CEO received a standing ovation from congressional Republicans, and Trump complimented his rockets.
More to come.
