Trump returns to White House, pledging a smooth transition of power

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump made a victor’s return to Washington on Wednesday, visiting the White House for a nearly two-hour meeting with President Joe Biden and committing to a straightforward transition of power as the president-elect moves quickly to build out his new administration.

Sitting in front of a crackling fire in the Oval Office, the former rivals shook hands as reporters looked on. Biden called Trump “Mr. President-elect and former president” before settling on “Donald.”

“Congratulations,” the Democrat told the Republican. “I look forward to having, like they said, a smooth transition,” Biden said. “Welcome. Welcome back.”

Trump replied, “Thank you very much,” saying that “politics is tough. And it’s, in many cases, not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much.”

He said the transition between the outgoing and incoming administrations “will be as smooth as it can get and I very much appreciate that, Joe.” Trump, who has long disputed his 2020 election loss to Biden, did not invite Biden to the White House during the transition four years ago.

The scene put in stark relief the remarkable political rebound for Trump, who departed Washington in January 2021 as a diminished, politically defeated leader after helping incite a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol. Today, he is preparing to come back to power with what he and his GOP allies see as a mandate for governance.

Neither he nor Biden answered questions shouted by the media after their brief remarks. At one point, Biden looked at Trump, who moved his head to the side and gave a small shrug but did not respond.

After his election win in 2016, Trump met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and called it “a great honor.” But he soon was back to heaping insults on his predecessor.

While refraining Wednesday from the bombast seen as a candidate, Trump looked at ease in the Oval Office, unlike in 2016, when he appeared nervous and subdued when meeting with Obama eight years ago.

Trump left the White House after his session with Biden without addressing the large contingent of reporters on the White House driveway waiting outside the West Wing in case he did make an appearance.

Each was joined by his chief of staff for the private meeting that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power, but a ritual that Trump declined to participate in four years ago after losing to Biden.

First lady Jill Biden greeted Trump upon his arrival at the White House and gave him a handwritten letter of congratulations for his wife, Melania Trump, who did not make the trip to Washington. The letter also expressed the first lady’s team’s readiness to assist with the transition.

As Trump met with Biden, Trump sent out a fundraising email to supporters saying that he “is inside the White House right now conducting a very important meeting.”

Trump had flown from Florida in the morning, joining up with billionaire Elon Musk for a morning session with House Republicans. That discussion came as Trump prepares for a potentially unified Republican government and sweep of power.

Back in Washington for the first time since his election victory, Trump told the GOP lawmakers, “It’s nice to win.”

He received a standing ovation from House GOP members, many of whom took cellphone videos of Trump as ran through their party’s victories up and down the ballot, in what would be, under the constitutional limits, his final presidential election.

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say he’s good we got to figure something else,” Trump said to laughter from the lawmakers.

The Constitution’s 22nd Amendment prevents presidents from running for a third term.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said of Trump’s arrival, “He is the comeback king.”

“We owe him a great debt of gratitude,” Johnson said.

Trump’s reemergence comes amid Republican congressional leadership elections — with the potential for the president-elect to place his imprint on the outcome. He endorsed Johnson’s return to the speaker’s office with the president-elect saying he is with Johnson all the way, according to a person familiar with the remarks but not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting.

Musk joining Trump on the return to Washington comes after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been spending much of his time at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate, and participating in discussions as the incoming Trump administration prepares to transition from Biden’s.

Trump has named Musk to a government efficiency advisory role in his incoming administration. Some close to Trump and his team now see Musk as the second most influential figure in Trump’s immediate orbit, after Susie Wiles, the campaign manager who is Trump’s incoming chief of staff.

Trump has continued to lie about widespread voter fraud that did not occur. In addition to not inviting then-president-elect Biden to the White House, Trump left Washington without attending the inauguration. It was the first time that had happened since Andrew Johnson skipped Ulysses S. Grant’s swearing-in 155 years ago.

Biden insists that he’ll do everything he can to make the transition to the next Trump administration go smoothly. That’s despite having spent more than a year campaigning for reelection and decrying Trump as a threat to democracy and the nation’s core values. Biden then bowed out of the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.

Traditionally, as the outgoing and incoming presidents meet in the West Wing, the first lady hosts her successor upstairs in the residence, But her office said Melania Trump wasn’t attending, saying in a statement that “her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success.”

When Trump left Washington in 2021, even some top Republicans had begun to decry his role in helping incite the mob that stormed the Capitol mere weeks earlier. But his win in last week’s election completes a political comeback that has seen Trump once again become the unchallenged head of the GOP.

Wednesday’s trip was not the first time Trump has returned to the Capitol area since the end of his first term, though. Congressional Republicans hosted Trump over the summer, as Trump was again solidifying his dominance over the party.

In last week’s election, Republicans wrested the Senate majority from Democrats and are on the cusp of keeping control of the House, are in the midst of their own leadership elections happening behind closed doors Wednesday. Johnson has pulled ever-closer to Trump as he worked to keep his majority — and his own job with the gavel.

Trump didn’t meet in the morning with the Senate, where Republicans chose Sen. John Thune of South Dakota in a three-way race to replace outgoing GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Trump’s allies were pushing GOP senators to vote for Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Farnoush Amiri, Darlene Superville and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.