Nearly four years after he walked out of the White House in the aftermath of a violent insurrection, President-elect Donald Trump will re-enter the building on Wednesday to meet with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
By inviting Trump, Biden is extending to his predecessor and successor a formal courtesy that Trump didn’t give him four years ago. In many ways, he is hosting a rival who he’d argued was a threat to American democracy to make the point that democracy itself hinges on elections where the losers accept the results.
The meeting comes eight days after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris and six days after Biden’s Rose Garden speech, where he sought to reassure disappointed Democrats that democracy would endure — even though the central political project that has defined the final chapter of his own decadeslong career, keeping Trump out of the White House, has failed.
Harris is not expected to attend the meeting. Nor is Melania Trump, who declined an invitation from first lady Jill Biden, reportedly over lingering frustration over the FBI’s August 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago to recover classified documents.
Biden’s low approval ratings and the public’s deep frustrations with the higher cost of living are the clearest signs for Trump’s resounding victory. The twice impeached and criminally convicted 45th president won every battleground state and the popular vote for the first time in three tries.
The symbolism of the meeting — two political foes shaking hands, sitting together in an office they both know well — offers both men a chance to showcase a graciousness and a semblance of unity following a divisive election. That may supercede substantive policy discussions, although Biden does plan to raise some issues with the goal of convincing Trump to keep specific policies in place.
On Tuesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered few details about the meeting, telling reporters that it was mainly about “importance of keeping norms, the importance of having a transition that is going to be efficient. That is what the American people deserve. And that’s the message.”
