Biden, Trump to meet at White House on Wednesday
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will host President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, extending a presidential tradition to his onetime rival that Trump did not offer four years ago after Biden defeated him.
In a brief statement, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said Biden had invited Trump to join him in the Oval Office, but she did not provide any additional details about the meeting.
The visual of Biden and Trump together in the White House is likely to be as striking as the one of former President Barack Obama and Trump in 2016, after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to secure the presidency for the first time.
After that meeting, Obama told reporters that he had wished Trump well.
“Most of all, I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed – because if you succeed, then the country succeeds,” Obama said.
When Biden defeated Trump after a bitterly divisive contest in 2020, Trump did not concede his loss, and the two men did not meet in the White House. At that time, the country was still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tradition of the outgoing president and the incoming president meeting is typically a symbolic one, demonstrating the desire of both sides to engage in a peaceful and orderly transfer of power, especially when the new president is from the opposing party.
Eight years ago, Trump used the moment to be conciliatory toward Obama, who had repeatedly called him unfit for office and a threat to democracy.
“I have great respect,” Trump said at the time. “We discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel.”
That did not happen. Trump did not seek his predecessor’s counsel and spent much of his time in office insulting Obama and seeking to undo the former president’s agenda.
Tensions between Trump and Biden were even deeper following Trump’s refusal to concede defeat and his actions before and after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying that Biden had won the election.
In addition to not hosting Biden for the traditional meeting at the White House, Trump did not attend the inauguration, as most outgoing presidents do.
In remarks after Trump’s recent victory, Biden congratulated his successor and pledged to help him make an orderly transition back into the White House.
“Campaigns are contests of competing visions,” Biden said. “The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I’ve said many times, you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.