President-elect Donald Trump and so are President Biden meeting at the White House Wednesday as part of the transition process, a formality Trump did not grant to Mr. Biden in 2020.
Melania Trump will not meet first lady Jill Biden, although the first ladies traditionally meet. Melania Trump met with Michelle Obama in 2016.
The last time Trump and Mr. Biden met was face-to-face during the debate in Junein which Mr. Biden called Trump a “convicted felon” and said he had the “morals of an alley cat.” Trump, for his part, said the US had become a “third world country” under Biden, calling him a “Manchurian candidate.” Mr. Biden was struggling during the debate, and his campaign later said he had a cold, but his actions alarmed Democrats and him dropped out of the race weeks later – leaving Trump to face Vice President Kamala Harris in the general election.
Although Wednesday’s meeting is likely to be civil, the pair are bitter rivals.
Elon Muska major backer of Trump’s 2024 bid, who was named Tuesday night as the head of a new Office of Government Efficiencywas with Trump on his plane as they headed to Washington, a source said. He attended the House Republican conference meeting in Washington with Trump, a source familiar with House Republicans told CBS News.
Trump was greeted with a standing ovation by Republicans in the House of Representatives and said his team “worked with a lot of you to get you in, and you helped me, and you helped me too.”
As reporters left the room, Trump told Republicans in the House of Representatives, “I guess I’m not going to run again unless you do something different, unless you say he’s so good we have to figure something out.”
Although Trump is a whole series of cabinet choices he has not appeared in public since the election since speaking to supporters at his election headquarters in West Palm Beach when it became clear he had won the election.
Nikole Killion and Caitlin Huey-Burns contributed to this report.
