President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump are meeting in the White House.
The meeting between an outgoing and incoming U.S. president is a 92-year-old American political tradition symbolizing the peaceful transition of power, a cornerstone of U.S. democracy.
The tradition dates back to 1932, when President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt met with the sitting president, Herbert Hoover, in the White House Red Room. The November 22, 1932, meeting was contentious, taking place after a bitter election battle between the two men amid the Great Depression.
In a departure from this American tradition, Trump declined to invite Biden to the White House after his defeat in 2020, which he refused to concede. Trump also did not attend Biden’s inauguration, held just two weeks after the New York-born businessman incited riots at the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn the 2020 elections.
Incoming First Lady Melania Trump declined an invitation from First Lady Jill Biden to visit the White House. She is not expected to return to the White House at the start of Trump’s second administration.
Watch President Biden and President-Elect Trump Meet at the White House
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