President-elect Donald Trump met with President Joe Biden on Wednesday morning after a session with House Republicans, marking his first trip to Washington, D.C., after his decisive election win and as his administration rapidly takes shape.
Trump and Biden met at 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.”
“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.”
The two have not met 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 on Wednesday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson told gathered Republicans to say they owed Trump their gratitude, calling him a “comeback king” as he steers them toward a majority as the final 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 cell phone 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.
This is a breaking news story and it will be updated.
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