Before returning for real on Inauguration Day, Donald Trump will visit the White House shortly at the request of Democratic President Joe Biden, who had hoped to defeat his Republican predecessor a second time and stay there for another four years.
That may make for an unpleasant encounter, especially since President-elect Trump did not extend a White House invitation to Biden following his defeat in 2020.
Trump even left Washington before his Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration, becoming the first president since Andrew Johnson skipped Ulysses S. Grant’s 1869 swearing-in ceremony.
Biden also has the unusual distinction of having beaten Trump in one cycle and run against him for about 15 months during this year’s campaign.
As he ran for reelection, Biden repeatedly criticized Trump as a threat to democracy and the country’s essential values before dropping out in July and supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran her campaign and lost on Election Day.
When the two meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday, it will be the first time since 1992 that an outgoing president sits down with an incoming president against whom he ran a campaign.
Around two weeks after the election, Republican President George H.W. Bush met with Democratic and President-elect Bill Clinton.
Bush and Clinton discussed policy before heading to the Roosevelt Room to meet with their transition staff. Clinton later described the encounter as “terrific” and that Bush was “very helpful.”
Over the years, handoff meetings between exiting presidents and their successors have been amicable, tense, and something in between.
Biden Not Repeating Trump’s Mistake
This time, Biden has pledged to facilitate a seamless transition and underlined the significance of collaborating with Trump, his presidential predecessor and successor, to bring the country together.
Biden’s White House invitation to Trump included his wife, Melania Trump, the former and now-incoming first lady.
“I assured him that I’d direct my entire administration to work with his team,” Biden said of the call with Trump when he made the invitation. The president-elect “looks forward to the meeting,” spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Jim Bendat, a historian and author of “Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President,” called face-to-face chats between outgoing and incoming presidents “healthy for democracy.”
“I’m pleased to see that the Democrats have chosen to take the high road and returned to the traditions that really do make America great,” Bendat said.
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