President-elect Trump and President Biden are readying for what promises to be a highly awkward meeting at the White House on Wednesday as Biden welcomes his successor — a man he labeled a danger to the country — to his residence.
The meeting is meant to underscore the peaceful transition of power in America four years after Trump contested the results of Biden’s 2020 win and never invited him to the White House, a post-presidential election tradition.
Yet it also promises to be a painful day for Biden, his staff and Democrats around the country, who saw Trump roll to a decisive victory over Vice President Harris, winning all seven of the key swing states and the popular vote. Republicans also won majorities in the House and Senate on Trump’s coattails.
It was a momentous loss for the Democratic Party, Harris and Biden, who has since come under criticism from some in his party for not getting out of the race earlier.
Wednesday also promises to be a victory lap for Trump, who will return to the White House for the first time since he left early on the morning of Biden’s inauguration in January 2021 under a cloud of controversy.
“Think about it, four years ago he had to turn over the keys to Biden and now he gets to take them not only from Biden but from his designated replacement who he just beat. So, it certainly is a victory lap,” said GOP lobbyist Marc Lampkin, ex-deputy campaign manager for former President George W. Bush.
A former Trump campaign official described the White House visit as a moment of revenge for the president-elect.
“I’m sure it will be a bitter pill for President Biden but a moment of sweet revenge in some ways for President Trump, to come back to the place he had to give up four years ago but come back with a truly significant victory, including the popular vote, which a Republican hasn’t won in a long time,” the source said. The last time was Bush in 2004.
Before the Trump-Biden meeting at 11 a.m. EST, the president-elect is expected to visit GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where he will likely be praised for his hand in the Republicans’ across-the-board wins.
“It’s very hard to imagine that President Trump won’t take the moment to at least spike the football a little bit — after all he did vanquish both President Biden and his hand-picked successor,” said Stewart Verdery, who served in Bush’s administration and is a founder of Monument Advocacy.
“But he also knows that he is being handed a series of overseas crises and how much cooperation he can get during the handoff will be a big factor in what the world looks like on Jan. 20,” he added.
Biden has repeatedly called Trump a threat to democracy and a month before the election, gave a feisty rebuke against his predecessor while arguing he was running for president again to stay out of jail.
He also appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage” weeks before the election while criticizing a comedian’s joke at a Trump rally calling Puerto Rico an “island of garbage.” At the time, the White House argued the president was being misinterpreted and had been referring to the rhetoric at the rally as “garbage.”
Trump has launched a litany of insults toward Biden, referring to him as “Crooked Joe” and a “feeble old guy.” He has accused Biden of having a “low IQ” and being “stupid” throughout the election season. He also never conceded his defeat in the 2020 election.
Despite the rivalry during the campaign, some Republicans think the Wednesday meeting won’t lead to any fireworks.
“Tomorrow’s encounter, while significant and the imagery will be powerful, I think it will be fairly unremarkable. I do get the sense that the president-elect and the transition team are trying to conduct this whole process in a far more disciplined and professional matter than what was done in 2016,” said former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla).
“The Biden-Harris administration has set a good tone for this transition process, expressing a willingness to be helpful and cooperative despite how contentious and negative the campaign was. It’s not going to be as dramatic as some might expect.”
Biden called Trump last week after he won back the White House. The president said he assured Trump the Biden administration would “work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition.”
“He believes in the norms, he believes in our institutions, he believes in the peaceful transfer of power,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.
“We want this to go well,” she added, referring to the meeting. “We want this to be a process that gets the job done, if you will.”
Meanwhile, some expect Trump’s meeting on Capitol Hill to look like a pep rally with his fellow Republicans.
“I highly doubt that he will get into policy details or even a specific policy agenda beyond broad themes,” Curbelo said. “I’ve been in those meetings before and typically, he just likes to connect with the audience and maybe tell a few jokes and celebrate. I think it will be more of a social gathering than a business gathering.”
Others expect Trump to stay focused on Wednesday in order to ensure that his agenda can be implemented quickly after he is sworn into office.
“I think he will be gracious in his interaction with Biden… he’s been clear-eyed on focusing on hitting the ground running in January,” Lampkin said. “Part of his mission on Capitol Hill is to say we need to put all of the intra-party fighting aside because we got a lot of work to do in a short period of time.”
