Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- President-elect Donald Trump returned to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden, discussing the transfer of power.
- Biden promised a smooth transition, contrasting their prior criticisms and differing policy views.
- The transition is partially stalled, with Trump's team yet to sign necessary agreements.
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 leaders sat side by side before a roaring fire in the Oval Office, a peaceful scene that belied tensions between them.
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. He handed his candidacy to Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost.
"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.
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.
Trump's motorcade rolled through the heavily guarded White House gate. Biden greeted the former and future president in the Oval Office.
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.
Trump meets Republican lawmakers
Trump celebrated his victory earlier in the day with Republicans in the House of Representatives, who have a good chance of maintaining control of the chamber as the Nov. 5 election results trickle in.
"Isn't it nice to win? It's nice to win. It's always nice to win," Trump said. "The House did very well."
Transition partially stalled
Although Biden intended to use the meeting to show continuity, the transition itself is 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.
Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Partnership for Public Service's Center for Presidential Transition, a nonprofit that advises incoming administrations, said the agreement underscores that the United States only has one president at a time and includes pledges to sign ethics pacts not to profit off information provided in the transition.
"That needs to be signed for interaction to begin with federal agencies," she said. "Everything is hinging on that."
Contributing: Heather Timmons, Richard Cowan, Steve Holland and Rami Ayyub
