Four years after President-elect Donald Trump snubbed President Joe Biden in the traditional transfer of power out of anger, the two set aside any animosity to have tea and share a limousine ride to the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony.
Inauguration Day has returned to its roots as Biden prepares to leave the White House peacefully and friendly – unlike four years ago when Trump refused to attend the inauguration or participate in pre-inauguration traditions due to the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Per tradition, the Bidens invited the Trumps to the White House to meet for tea before inauguration proceedings despite the Trumps refusing to extend the invite to the Bidens four years ago.
Upon meeting at the White House on Monday morning, President Biden told the Trumps, “Welcome home.”
Biden and Trump then shared the presidential limo to head to the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony.
It’s a less than two-mile car ride but it’s likely an awkward one after the contentious presidential election cycle. The two men consistently traded jabs at one another on the campaign trail and during press conferences. Trump has often referred to Biden as a failure and claimed he is unfit to serve in the White House.
Biden has repeatedly called his political opponent a threat to democracy.
It was ultimately Biden’s disastrous presidential debate performance against Trump that led to the president to drop out of the race. Democrat leaders and voters lost confidence in Biden’s ability to defeat Trump in November, forcing the president to become a lame-duck.
After Trump is officially sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, he will join Biden and past presidents in the ceremonial wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery. While they are conducting official activities, the Bidens will be moved out of the White House.
Trump was the first president to break inauguration day traditions in decades when he refused to warmly welcome the Bidens to the White House four years ago.
Former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama put aside any differences with the Trumps to participate in inaugural day traditions in 2017. That was after Trump spent years promoting a racist conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the U.S.
Before Trump snubbed Biden in 2021, the last president to not attend inauguration was in 1921 when Woodrow Wilson was too ill to attend inaugural ceremonies.
