Democratic normality in the transfer of power returns to the White House. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, will receive his successor, Donald Trump, next Wednesday in the Oval Office, after “At the invitation of President Biden, President Biden and President-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. (5:00 p.m. in mainland Spain),” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. There will be new details later.
One of the highlights of the transition. The law states that a classified summary relating to national security must be delivered to the president-elect as soon as possible. It is common for presidents-elect to receive daily or almost daily intelligence briefings during the transfer of power period. Biden can use the meeting to discuss some of the most sensitive issues.
Trump was also Biden’s predecessor, but that replacement was very different. The Republican was not able to accept his resounding defeat at the polls and tried to subvert the electoral result, for which he has been charged with numerous crimes, although he has not been tried. His attitude contributed to the On the fourth anniversary of that date, Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic candidate in the elections, will now be
To comment on the election result, the president called for an effort at national reconciliation and understanding to “lower the temperature” of fiery American politics. The meeting between the two can contribute to this. It will be the first time that the two meet in the same room since the presidential debate on June 29 in Atlanta (Georgia) on CNN. ended up forcing his withdrawal and the passing of the baton to Harris, later defeated at the polls by Trump.
The White House and his campaign had already indicated that it had accepted it. All that remained was to set the date. “Yesterday I spoke with President-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory, and I assured him that I am ordering my entire Administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. “That’s what the American people deserve.”
It won’t be an easy meeting. For four years, Trump and Biden have been bitter political enemies. The Republican threatened to prosecute him and his family if he regained power, as revenge for the cases that Trump has faced, despite the fact that the current president has allowed his attorney general, Merrick Garland, to act independently.
Scheduled procedure
The transition of power in the United States is a highly planned procedure, which begins a year before the presidential elections, but takes shape when there is already an elected president. The objective is that when the new president takes office, the machinery of the new Administration starts rolling without interruptions.
In 2020, Trump’s team initially refused to cooperate with Biden by not recognizing him as the winner, which delayed the handover. It was not until 20 days after the elections, and when Thanksgiving was approaching, that although this did not mean that Trump recognized his defeat or that he stopped trying to subvert the result. On November 23, the then president limited himself to recommending that his team do “whatever is necessary” in relation to “the initial protocols” for the transfer of powers.
After the chaos of 2020, Congress approved a new presidential transition law in 2022 that better defines the obligations of the outgoing Administration. Trump has put political allies, friends and family in charge of the transfer of powers team. The transition co-chairs are Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, and Linda McMahon, who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.
Trump, the architect of his campaign and the first woman to hold the position, will also play a prominent role in the transfer of power efforts. The position of White House chief of staff is a kind of shadow prime minister. In the United States there is no council of ministers that meets regularly and has the prerogative to make decisions. The cabinet only meets on exceptional occasions and on a consultative basis. The majority of the secretaries in charge of their portfolios report directly to the head, in this case the chief, of the cabinet.
The president-elect and his team will prepare in the remaining days until taking office, at noon on January 20, as established by the Constitution, through executive orders (decrees) and other initiatives. Measures to close the border with Mexico to irregular immigration, to facilitate the extraction of hydrocarbons and possible tariffs on imports are among the possibilities being considered, although their specific scope is not yet known.
