‘Politics is tough,’ Trump tells Biden in post-election White House visit

Washington: Four years after he walked out of the White House following the violent insurrection he helped incite, Donald Trump has returned to Washington to begin the orderly transition of power.

After meeting with House Republicans to celebrate his emphatic victory over Kamala Harris, Trump met Joe Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning (Thursday AEST), continuing a tradition Trump himself did not offer the president after failing to accept the results of the 2020 election.

Sitting in front of a roaring fire – not far from the “beautiful, resolute desk” Trump often reminisces about at his rallies – the men exchanged a handshake and pleasantries, briefly putting aside the acrimony that underpinned their relationship for years.

“We will do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, and have what you need,” Biden told the president-elect. “We’re going to get a chance to talk about some of that today. So welcome. Welcome back.”

Trump thanked Biden, telling his predecessor: “Politics is tough, and it’s, in many cases, not a nice world.

“But it is a nice world today and I appreciate very much a transition that’s so smooth, it’ll be as smooth as you can get. And I very much appreciate that, Joe.”

It must have been a surreal experience for Biden, the 81-year-old president who genuinely believed he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump and holds the dubious honour of being the only one who has.

Now, here he was, sitting beside the man he has often described as an existential threat to democracy, and who, as he said during their last meeting on the debate stage in June, was a “convicted felon” with “all the morals of an alley cat”.

Trump has regularly attacked Biden, too, portraying him as a demented old man, regularly impersonating the incumbent president at his rallies by pretending to walk into walls or getting lost while trying to exit the stage.

President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House.Credit: AP

Gone were the insults today, of course, along with the false claims of election fraud that were an ongoing feature of Trump’s campaign – until he won.

Indeed, last week’s victory was so resounding that Trump not only swept all seven battleground states, he also claimed the popular vote and helped the Republicans take control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, which was confirmed with an Arizona win on Thursday.

His allies, however, did not get their way today when Republicans in Congress voted for South Dakota Senator John Thune as their leader to replace Mitch McConnell, who is standing down after 17 years at the helm.

MAGA loyalists, including Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, had put their weight behind Florida Senator Rick Scott for the job, mounting a pressure campaign to thwart Thune and Texas Senator John Cornyn.

But in defiance of the push, Thune – one of McConnell’s most loyal disciples – won the secret ballot to become the new GOP leader, declaring immediately that “this Republican team is united behind President Trump’s agenda, and our work starts today”.

Newly-elected Senate Majority Leader Senator John Thune.Credit: AP

“We will make sure that the president and his team have the tools and support that they need to enforce border security laws and to remove violent criminals who are wreaking havoc in every one of our states,” he told reporters in his first press conference as Senate majority leader.

“We will work to make America prosperous again by streamlining the bureaucratic machine … and we will work to restore American energy dominance.”

Thune’s priorities are consistent with the policies Trump took to the election. He also vowed to move swiftly to confirm nominations made by Trump as he beefs up his new cabinet with loyalists to carry out his second-term agenda.

Among them is Musk, who has become such an influential figure within Trump’s orbit he was even seated in the front row when the president-elect met with the House Republican conference in Washington this morning.

The SpaceX chief did not join Trump at the White House though – that was attended by Trump and Biden with their respective chiefs of staff, Susie Wiles and Jeff Zients. Also absent was Melania Trump, who turned down an invitation from First Lady Jill Biden due to a “scheduling conflict”.

The First Lady nonetheless joined Biden in greeting Trump upon his arrival at the White House, giving the president-elect a handwritten letter of congratulations to Melania, which also expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition.

Musk, alongside conservative firebrand Vivek Ramaswamy, has been tapped by Trump to oversee a new commission called the “Department of Government Efficiency”, which will aim to “dismantle government bureaucracy” and cut regulations.

“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk warned in a statement.

Trump also appointed more allies to key staffing roles on Wednesday, including his campaign senior adviser Dan Scavino as an assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff in the White House.

This may not bode well for Kevin Rudd after Scavino fuelled speculation about the future of Australia’s ambassador to Washington by reposting a congratulatory statement Rudd made to Trump on social media with a gif of an hourglass.

This was interpreted to mean that Rudd’s time as ambassador may be nearing an end due to disparaging remarks the former prime minister made about Trump when he was working at an independent think tank.

Trump’s latest round of staffing appointments also confirmed Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser in charge of overseeing his signature election promise: the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

As expected, he also nominated Florida Senator Marco Rubio, an ardent critic of China and Iran, as secretary of state, making him America’s new top diplomat.

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