WASHINGTON: Presi­dent-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, longtime political rivals, met on Wednesday for the first time since Trump won back the White House last week and both promised a smooth transfer of power in January.

The two American leaders sat side by side before a roaring fire in the Oval Office, a peaceful scene that belied tensions between them.

The meeting ended after roughly two hours, a White House official said. Biden, a Democrat, defeated Trump in the 2020 election but dropped out of the 2024 race in July after a disastrous debate with the Republican Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris became the candidate but lost to Trump.

“We’re looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition, do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, what you need,” Biden said. “Welcome, welcome back.”

“Politics is tough, and it’s 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, Joe,” said Trump, who takes over on Jan 20.

Reporters shouted questions but were quickly ushered out.

The traditional courtesy of welcoming the president-elect into the Oval Office is one that Trump did not extend when Biden won in 2020.

It was a sharp contrast to the criticism the two men have hurled at each other for years. Their res­pective teams hold vastly different positions on policies from climate change to Russia to trade.

First lady Jill Biden joined Biden in greeting Trump on his arrival. The White House said she gave Trump a handwritten letter of congratulations for his wife, Melania Trump, and “expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition”.

Biden, 81, has portrayed Trump as a threat to democracy, while Trump, 78, has portrayed Biden as incompetent. Trump made false claims of widespread fraud after losing the 2020 election to Biden.

Biden stressed to Trump that it was crucial to continue US support for Ukraine against Russia, the White House said. “President Biden reinforced his view that the United States standing with Ukraine on an ongoing basis is in our national security interest,” Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told a briefing.

“He believes in the norms, he believes in our institution, he believes in the peaceful transfer of power,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said of Biden’s decision to invite Trump. She spoke at a briefing for reporters on Tuesday.

Outside the White House gates, signs of the impending power transfer were evident with construction already under way for the stands for VIP guests to sit during the parade that will take place after Trump is inaugurated.

Dozens of White House staff members gathered on an outdoor stairwell to glimpse Trump’s arrival.

Transition partially stalled

Although Biden intended to use the meeting to show continuity, the transition itself has partially stalled. Trump’s team, which has already announced some members of the incoming president’s cabinet, has yet to sign agreements that would lead to office space and government equipment as well as access to government officials, facilities and information, according to the White House.

The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act, said Brian Vance, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, referring to the law that governs the transfer of power.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2024