‘Politics today is beautiful’

For the first time in almost four years, Donald Trump was back in the White House today. President Joe Biden welcomed him. The two promised each other a smooth transfer of power in January.

Unlike campaign times, they kept it civil. With the hearth behind him, they shook hands:

“Thank you,” Trump said after Biden said his team would do “everything we can to accommodate you” during the transition of power. “Politics is hard and in many cases it’s not pretty,” said the incoming president. “But it is today. We are going to transfer power as smoothly as we can.”

Then a cacophony of journalists asking questions erupted at the same time. The Democrat and the Republican had to laugh about it. Without answering a question, the media were directed outside.

It was a tense meeting between the two aging leaders. Four years ago, Trump, then resigned as president, did not invite Biden to the White House after the Democrats won the election. A sitting president notably does not.

Trump has never acknowledged the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Republican claims that fraud was committed on a large scale, although evidence of this has never been found. Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to try to prevent the Democrats from returning to the White House.

Then Trump also jumped from Biden’s inauguration. He was the first vice president to do so in 155 years.

The future and the present first wifeMelania Trump and Jill Biden, also did not meet today. That’s unusual too. Jill Biden sent a handwritten letter to Melania Trump, congratulating her husband on her victory.

After a dramatic televised debate against Trump for Biden, the Democrat withdrew as a presidential candidate. Vice President Kamala Harris was put forward, but in the end Trump definitely won the race for president.

He also received the most votes in absolute terms, so called popular vote. This is the first time in two decades that a Republican candidate has done so. Trump’s party has also taken control of the Senate. The battle for the House of Representatives is not yet settled.