WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden met with President-elect Donald Trump for nearly two hours in the Oval Office on Nov. 13, during which both committed to a smooth transfer of power.
In brief remarks before their meeting, the president congratulated Trump and said his administration will help accommodate the president-elect’s needs in the transition.
“Congratulations and I look forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition,” Biden said. “Welcome. Welcome back.”
Trump thanked the president, adding, “Politics is tough, and it’s, many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today.”
“[A transition] will be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that, Joe,” Trump said.
First lady Jill Biden joined the president in greeting Trump when he arrived at the White House and gave the president-elect a handwritten letter of congratulations to Melania Trump, according to the White House. The future first lady did not attend the meeting on Nov. 13.
The meeting marked Trump’s first return to the White House in four years following a decisive victory in the Nov. 5 election. His win capped a significant comeback after losing his reelection bid to Biden in 2020.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president and his team are focused on ensuring that the transition is both effective and efficient.
In a news briefing on Nov. 12, Jean-Pierre said that Biden is hosting this meeting because he “believes in the norms.”
“He said the American people deserve this. They deserve a peaceful transfer of power,” she said.
After the meeting, Jean-Pierre said the nearly two-hour meeting’s length indicated its substance and importance, as the two had an in-depth discussion on an array of issues.
She also noted that the meeting was “very cordial, very gracious, and substantive,” adding that the president-elect arrived at the Oval Office with “a detailed set of questions.”
On Nov. 10, 2016, President Barack Obama invited then-President-elect Trump to the White House as part of the tradition.
However, following his dispute over the results of the 2020 election, Trump did not extend a similar invitation to President-elect Joe Biden.
The Nov. 13 meeting between Biden and Trump reflects a significant shift in the relationship between the two presidents.
Biden has repeatedly called Trump an “existential threat” to democracy, accusing him of instigating the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump, in turn, has referred to Biden as “the worst president in the history of the United States, by far.”
However, on Nov. 7, Biden delivered a speech from the Rose Garden, promising a peaceful transition of power and urging Americans to “accept the choice.” The day before, Biden had spoken with Trump to congratulate him on his victory in the 2024 election.
Trump’s team quickly confirmed the call in a statement.
“President Trump looks forward to the meeting, which will take place shortly, and very much appreciated the call,” Steven Cheung, Trump campaign communications director, said in the statement.
Ukraine, Government Funding Top Agenda
Biden and Trump “discussed important national security and domestic policy issues facing the nation and the world,” Jean-Pierre said during the news briefing on Nov. 13.“President Biden also raised important items on Congress’s to-do list for the lame-duck session, including funding the government and providing the disaster supplemental funding the president requested,” she said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that Biden told the president-elect not to abandon Ukraine.
“President Biden reinforced his view that the United States’ standing with Ukraine on an ongoing basis is in our national security interest,” Sullivan said during the news briefing.
“He'll continue to make this case, both privately and publicly.”
The two last crossed paths at the 9/11 memorial in New York City for the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Nov. 11 criticized Trump’s transition team.
“Donald Trump and his transition team are already breaking the law,” Warren said in a Nov. 11 post on social media platform X. “I would know because I wrote the law. Incoming presidents are required to prevent conflicts of interest and sign an ethics agreement.”
Warren was reacting to news reports that Trump’s transition team had not yet signed agreements with the Biden White House and the General Services Administration, a federal agency with a prominent role in the presidential transition process.
The agreements will grant Trump’s team access to federal office space, secure emails, and funds designated for transition efforts.
Jean-Pierre told reporters on Nov. 7 that Trump’s team “said they have an intent” to sign the agreements.
Prior to the meeting at the White House on Nov. 13, Trump met with Republican lawmakers in Congress.
