WASHINGTON.- President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team called his trip to Washington, DC, a “triumphant return,” while House Speaker Mike Johnson hailed it as “the return of the king.”
“Today, following his resounding victory last week, President Donald J. Trump made a ‘triumphant’ return to the nation’s capital, a harbinger of the sea change coming in just a few weeks,” said Jake Schneider, director of Rapid Response of the Republican Transition Team.
The mood among Republicans in Washington, DC is clear after confirming that they will achieve a majority in Congress, a minimal advantage that will force them to negotiate with Democrats if they want to advance President Trump’s agenda.
The president-elect returned to Washington, DC, after achieving electoral victory on November 5, obtaining 312 Electoral College votes, including 93 votes from the seven states considered key, including Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Trump’s first stop occurred in the House of Representatives, where he met with Republicans and where Johnson referred to him as “king,” even leading to a Trump joke: “I suspect I won’t run again, unless they say : ‘It’s so good we’ll have to think about something else.’”
His party colleagues laughed, but criticism was added on social networks, considering that Trump wanted to stay in power in perpetuity, but the Constitution does not allow it, but the Republican has made similar jokes on other occasions, such as in 2019 and then in 2020, during a rally in Wisconsin, when the crowd chanted “four more years!” He replied, “Then after that, we will spend another four years.”
In the Senate, in parallel, the vote was being held to elect the new leader of the Republican majority, John Thune (South Dakota), a Republican closer to the outgoing leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), than to Trump, whose political group He was looking to place Rick Scott (Florida).
Thune expressed his honor and pledged to advance the incoming president’s legislative priorities.
“We are excited to take back the majority and work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump’s agenda,” Thune said after being confirmed as the new Republican leader in the Senate and, therefore, incoming majority leader.
After 11:00 am, the president-elect Trump met with President Joe Biden at the White Houseat the invitation of the latter, as part of a tradition that dates back years and that was interrupted in 2020 by the Republican himself, who then refused to recognize his electoral defeat.
The meeting between Trump and Biden was the first since the presidential debate on June 27, which Biden lost – according to various polls – and led to his decline in re-election, giving way to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Before and after that event, Trump and Biden had exchanged insults. While the first came to call the first “stupid”; the second considered the first a “danger” to US democracy.
Those times are long gone, because at the meeting in the Oval Room of the White House, both showed cordiality and agreed on the need for a “smooth transition” of power.
“Well, Mr. President-elect and former president…” Biden began the dialogue.
“Thank you very much, Joe,” Trump interrupted.
“Donald, congratulations,” Biden added.
“Thank you very much,” Trump responded.
The Democratic president reiterated his intention for there to be a “smooth transition,” promising to respond to all the needs of the transition team.
“Good,” said Trump, interrupting Biden’s message, who welcomed him again.
“Thank you very much… Politics is hard. And, in many cases, it is not a very pleasant world, but today it is a pleasant world. And I appreciate it very much: a transition that is as smooth as possible,” Trump said to thank again.
This first meeting between an incoming and outgoing president is a tradition in the US, which is also attended in a parallel meeting by the first lady in power and whoever will succeed her, but although Jill Biden sent an invitation, Melania Trump did not accept. due to alleged prior commitments. President Biden’s wife delivered a handwritten letter to the president-elect to deliver to his wife, as a sign of welcome and goodwill to cooperate in the transition.
After the public meeting, Trump and Biden had a private meeting of more than an hour. Details have not been revealed.
A global attraction
The meeting between Biden and Trump generated global attraction. The main road to the official residence was filled with journalists. Some estimated up to 200. Reports were heard in different languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Italian, French, Hindi, Mandarin… and many others.
We journalists waited for more than two hours for Trump’s possible exit through the door that gives access to the Oval Room, but the Republican left through the back door, something that surprised journalists, accustomed to the Republican’s attraction to the spotlight.
“It’s unpredictable,” “we already know what it’s like,” said some fellow journalists, who recognized the meeting as a return that seemed unlikely after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his electoral defeat in 2020. and of several legal challenges he faces, including having been found guilty of 34 crimes in New York for the secret payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and whose sentence could be canceled on November 19, at the next appointment in Judge Juan’s courtroom Merchan.
“Four years after leaving the White House, and nearly eight years to the day he first met at the White House after the election, President Trump was back in the Oval Office as the transfer of power gets underway. underway,” Scheider added in his message to highlight the importance of Trump’s return. “One thing was very clear: change is in the air in Washington, DC, and it begins on January 20, 2025,” he said.
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