Biden, Trump to meet at White House ahead of historic return
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US President Joe Biden (left) will welcome US President-elect Donald Trump back to the White House on Nov 13.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON - Joe Biden will meet with President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on Nov 13, after the US leader pledged an orderly transfer of power back to the Republican he beat in elections just four years ago.
Trump - who never conceded his 2020 loss - sealed a historic comeback to the presidency
Mr Biden will join the tiny club of US presidents to return power to their White House predecessor - with a previous instance coming when president Benjamin Harrison handed back to Grover Cleveland in the 19th century.
The Democrat will meet Trump at the Oval Office at 11am (midnight on Nov 14 in Singapore), the White House said on Nov 9, with the clock ticking down to the ex-president’s return to power in January 2025.
The 78-year-old ex-reality TV star won wider margins than before, despite a criminal conviction, two impeachments while in office and warnings from his former chief of staff that he is a “fascist.”
Exit polls showed that voters’ top concern remained the economy and inflation that spiked under Mr Biden in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Biden, who dropped out of the race in July over concerns about his ability to continue at the age of 81, called Trump on Nov 13 to congratulate him after his election win.
The Democratic leader urged Americans in a solemn televised address
Trump 2.0
Trump has begun to assemble his second administration, naming campaign manager Susie Wiles to serve as his White House chief of staff.
She is the first woman to be named to the high-profile role and the Republican’s first appointment to his incoming administration.
“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected,” Trump said of the steely 67-year-old Florida native. “Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again.”
The other front-runners for a place in the Trump 2.0 administration reflect the significant changes it is likely to implement.
Mr Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a leading figure in the anti-vaccine movement for whom Trump has pledged a “big role” in health care, told NBC News on Nov 6 that “I’m not going to take away anybody’s vaccines.”
The world’s richest man, Mr Elon Musk, could also be in line for a job auditing government waste after the right-wing SpaceX, Tesla and X boss enthusiastically backed Trump.
Trump is expected to wield the axe on many of Mr Biden’s signature policies. He returns to the White House as a climate change denier, poised to take apart Mr Biden’s green policies with his pledge to “drill, baby, drill” for oil. AFP
