President-elect Donald Trump will return to Washington on Wednesday — entering the White House for the first time since he was voted out of office — to meet with President Joe Biden for a ceremony meant to signal the peaceful transfer of power.
Trump did not offer to Biden the same meeting in 2020, as he refused to concede the election results and worked to delay Biden’s taking office. Vice President Kamala Harris conceded defeat last Wednesday before a crowd of supporters in Washington after Trump won a decisive victory.
One unanswered question is whether Vice President-elect JD Vance will be a part of Wednesday’s trip to Washington. As of Tuesday evening, a source familiar with discussions said, Vance has yet to hear from Harris about any kind of outreach about a potential visit or otherwise since the election last week.
Trump has been in Florida since Election Day, surrounded by allies and advisers as he begins rolling out a list of Cabinet and other prize appointments stacked with loyalists. Trump returns to Washington to bask in the glow of his party’s sweeping electoral success, having secured control of the Senate and possibly the House, too.
Trump is expected to address House Republicans before he travels to the White House, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday. Trump could also meet with Senate Republicans, who will hold closed-door meetings Wednesday to elect a new leader.
The White House extended invitations to both Trump and former first lady Melania Trump, two White House officials said. In 2016, Melania Trump accepted the invitation and met with first lady Michelle Obama. This year, she is not expected to accompany her husband, a source familiar with the planning said.
Whether first lady Jill Biden will participate in a greeting with Trump is unknown. She is scheduled to be at the White House on Wednesday. Top staffers from the White House and Trump’s transition team are expected to meet, Biden and Trump officials said.
Former President Barack Obama invited Trump to meet at the White House two days after the 2016 election. The sitdown in the Oval Office lasted about 90 minutes, and Obama called it “an excellent conversation” that was “wide-ranging.” Biden met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence during that time, as well. Six days later, the Bidens hosted the Pences at the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence.
After the 2020 election, Trump did not invite Biden for a visit as he refused to concede the election results. Instead, he largely refused to allow his administration to participate in a transfer of power, refusing to give incoming Biden officials access to government resources and information.
Biden has sought to stick to his insistence that the peaceful transfer of power is critical, and he has vowed since Election Day that his administration would hand over the reins.
“Campaigns are a contest of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made,” Biden said last week. “You can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree.”
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