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President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Shaking on it
'Politics is tough': Trump returns to White House for friendly handover meeting with Biden
Trump promised the transition would be “smooth as you can get.”
DONALD TRUMP HAS made his return to the White House in a handover meeting with US president Joe Biden.
Trump said that the transition would be “smooth as you can get, as the victorious Republican made his first visit since departing under a torrent of scandal nearly four years ago.
The president-elect also thanked Biden for pledging a smooth transfer of power over the coming weeks.
“Donald, congratulations,” Biden said, greeting Trump with a handshake and adding that he looked “forward to a smooth transition”.
“Thank you very much,” Trump said after the two men shook hands in the Oval Office, “Politics is tough, and in many cases it’s not a very nice world. It is a nice world today and I appreciate it very much.”
Biden invited his sworn rival to meet in the Oval Office for today’s meeting. It’s a change to when in 2020, Trump refused to admit his election loss to Biden and never held a similar handover meeting with the Democrat.
Trump’s meeting with Biden comes as he moves swiftly to name his administration, including the world’s richest man Elon Musk as head of a new group aimed at slashing government spending.
With reporting by PA and AFP
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