A peaceful and orderly transfer of power was the promise offered by the United States president, Joe Biden, as he acknowledged the electoral outcome and signaled a path toward a smooth transition with the Republican Donald Trump. The pledge was meant to reassure a divided nation and its allies that the handover would proceed without disruption. The first real test of that pledge will unfold this Wednesday, in a meeting between the sitting president and the president-elect held in the Oval Office, a gathering announced just days earlier. The moment is more than a routine gesture; it is a symbolic step that resonates across Capitol Hill, the courts, the media, and households watching how power changes hands. Observers say the plan to begin the transition at the White House sets the tone for a process that historically marks the peaceful transfer of authority and signals continuity across agencies and institutions.
As tradition dictates, this meeting marks the start of the transition between the outgoing and incoming administrations. Yet Trump did not receive Biden for this kind of transition meeting after his loss in 2020. In fact, the former Republican president remains until now unwilling to admit that he lost that election. Instead, the claim of electoral fraud formed a central pillar of the campaign that brought him back to the White House, to the point that he said he would not concede any electoral result favorable to his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, raising concern among analysts and citizens about a new surge of violence.
That conspiracy theory, which the former president labeled the big lie, referred to Biden not winning the election, something that he did. It was the spark behind the assault on the Capitol nearly four years ago, while lawmakers certified Biden’s victory in the polls. The transition period stretches roughly two and a half months from the first Tuesday in November when results are known to the inauguration on January 20 of the following year, a timeline watched closely by officials and observers alike.
The news of the meeting between the two leaders emerged in a brief White House briefing, in which the press secretary said Biden had invited Trump to meet with him in the Oval Office but offered few details about the encounter.
This meeting will write a page in history that did not appear four years ago: Biden and Trump together in front of the White House, ready for the handover of power.