Trump tells Biden ‘politics is tough’ as they hold historic White House meeting after his election victory

Donald Trump called politics a tough sport when he met with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday, but he thanked Biden for a smooth transition process.

‘You’re welcome,’ Biden replied.

The meeting, which many feared would be awkward, started off cozy with the two men seated before a roaring fire. Trump wore a red tie and Biden sported a maroon one. Some of the country’s greatest presidents – Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington – stared down on them from their portraits on the wall.

The short glimpse the public got of them was cordial, with each calling the other by their first name. They shook hands. Kamala Harris, Biden’s vice president who Trump defeated, was not present nor was she mentioned.

Biden congratulated the man who both preceded him, and will replace him, in the White House. Trump won in a landslide, sweeping the seven swing states and winning the popular vote and electoral college.

‘Well Mr. President-elect, Donald, congratulations,’ Biden said. ‘I look forward to having a smooth transition.’

Trump thanked him.  

‘Politics is tough,’ the president-elect said. ‘In many cases it is not a nice world but it is a nice world today.’

Trump said of the transition process: ‘It will be as smooth as it can get and I very much appreciate that, Joe.’

Melania Trump was not with her husband. But first lady Jill Biden joined President Biden in greeting Trump upon his arrival to the White House. She gave the president-elect a handwritten letter of congratulations for Melania, which also expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition, the East Wing said.

No Trump staff or allies were seen in the Oval Office. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other staffers accompanied Trump to Washington D.C. and to his early meetings in the capital.  

For Trump, who has been busy this week naming top cabinet and West Wing picks, it was a grand return to the place from which he was vanquished four years ago by the man now sitting at the Resolute Desk, the same desk Trump used four years ago. 

Ahead of his meeting with Biden, Trump addressed House Republicans at a hotel on Capitol Hill. He flew to Washington D.C. from Palm Beach on Wednesday morning, landing at Andrews Air Force Base. 

‘Isn’t it nice to win?,’ he told his party members to great applause. ‘It’s nice to win.’

In addition to winning the White House, Republicans took control of the Senate. The House has yet to be called but many expect the GOP to be in the majority there too when the final races are tallied.

Trump also hinted he’d be available for a third term, telling the lawmakers jokingly: ‘I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, “He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out.”‘

Everyone laughed. 

Congress would have to amend the Constitution if Trump wanted to serve more than two terms. 

Trump, who endorsed Mike Johnson for speaker during the event, also had warm words for his party.  

‘I just want to thank everybody,’ the president-elect said. ‘You’ve been incredible. We worked with a lot of you.’

Biden, who defeated Trump four yeas ago and always believed he could beat him again in a rematch, has been focused on his final days in office. 

Ahead of his meeting with Trump, he bragged about his record as president.

Biden, speaking at the Classroom to Career Event taking place at the White House, pointed to the number of jobs he created.

‘We have created 16 million new jobs – brand new jobs – since I took office — the most in any single presidential term,’ he said.

He added that inflation and unemployment are back down near their pre-pandemic levels.

And he got in a hit at Trump, saying he is more invested in buying American than his predecessor: ‘This past administration failed to do that. Like I said so much was exported overseas.’

‘Not on my watch. My administration buys American.’

Both Biden and TRump have made clear they dislike the other. And neither man has held back when it comes to criticizing the other.

Biden has called Trump a threat to democracy, suggested he be locked up, and referred to his supporters as ‘garbage.’ Before he dropped out of the race in July, he hoped to defeat Trump for four more years in the White House.

Trump has questioned Biden’s mental health, threatened to lock up his son Hunter and prosecute any Democrat he feels is an enemy.

‘We want this to go well,’ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday ahead of the sit down.

The Biden White House laid the ground work for that to happen. Biden called Trump shortly after he won last week to offer his congratulations, pledge a peaceful transfer of power, and invite him to the Oval Office for a meeting – a traditional gesture for a departing-president to offer to the incoming one.

He has notably not spoken out against Trump as he had during the heated presidential campaign. For his part, Trump also has refrained from criticizing the current administration. Instead he’s focused on filling staff and cabinet positions, announcing a flood of hires. 

Still, the dark shadow of history loomed over Wednesday’s meeting. Adding to the awkwardness, after Biden ousted Trump in 2020, Trump offered no such Oval Office meeting to Biden.

Trump even left Washington before the Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration, becoming the first president to do so since Andrew Johnson to skip the swearing-in of his successor.

The meeting between current and future presidents is essentially a photo-op but an important one, showing the world the United States is one of the few nations where leaders peacefully hand over power.

President Biden ‘wants to show the American people that the system works, to trust the institutions, to trust that the norms do matter here, that he is showing by leadership what a peaceful transition looks like,’ Jean-Pierre said.

When the two men meet on Wednesday, it’ll technically be the first time since 1992 that an outgoing president sits down with an incoming one he competed against in a campaign.

That year, outgoing President George H.W. Bush met with President-elect Bill Clinton about two weeks after they squared off on Election Day.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who Trump defeated, will not join the Oval Office sitdown.

The last time a sitting Vice President lost out on a promotion was the 2000 election. Al Gore joined Clinton and incoming President George W. Bush in a meeting that was described as unpleasant.

Melania Trump will also be absent and not meet with Jill Biden. Traditionally the outgoing first lady hosts her successor for tea in the residence while the Oval Office meeting takes place. 

The two couples have met. Biden attended Trump’s 2017 inauguration in his role as outgoing vice president. Jill Biden was also there. The Bidens will attend Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, according to the White House.

Traditionally, the outgoing president welcomes the incoming one to the White House on the morning of the inauguration before riding together in the same vehicle to the Capitol building for the swearing in. The spouses also ride together.

Trump rode with then-President Barack Obama to his own inauguration. 

Additionally, both men are looking to the future. 

While Biden is in the process of packing up, Trump is already shaping his White House team.

He’s named campaign manager Susie Wiles as his chief of staff and longtime aide Stephen Miller will be his deputy chief of staff. Rep. Michael Walz will be his National Security Adviser and Senator Marco Rubio will be his secretary of state.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency, a new department Trump is creating to cut government waste.

The Trumps aren’t strangers making their first visit to the White House. The couple lived there for four years during Trump’s first term. They know the residence staff, they know the layout, they know where the bathrooms are.

And Trump has been through this before. Then-President Barack Obama invited him to the Oval Office shortly after the 2016 election to congratulate him on his victory.

When he entered the Oval Office at that time, Trump appeared nervous and was unusually subdued, calling Obama ‘a good man’ and the meeting ‘a great honor.’ Previously, Trump had questioned if Obama was even an American and demanded to see his birth certificate.

Obama’s White House press secretary Josh Earnest described the two men’s meeting as ‘at least a little less awkward than some might have expected.’