Joe Biden to receive Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday

Photo: Andrew Harnik Getty Images via Agence France-Presse US President Joe Biden leaves the Oval Office to address the results of the 2024 election.

Agence France-Presse

Posted at 12:02 PM Updated at 4:17 PM

• United States

Joe Biden will receive Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday, who is due to succeed him on January 20 at the White House, to begin a transfer of power that the Democrat has promised will be “peaceful” with his worst political enemy.

Two days after the Republican's resounding victory over Kamala Harris, the American president had promised to ensure a calm transfer of power, hoping to “lower the temperature” in a country on edge.

Badly beaten after a bitter campaign, the Democratic vice president also promised to “help” Donald Trump during this period.

The meeting at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday in the Oval Office will be the first step in this transition.

A very different situation from 2020 when Donald Trump refused to acknowledge his defeat and boycotted Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony. And this after his supporters stormed the Capitol, the temple of American democracy, to prevent the certification of the Democrat's victory on January 6, 2021.

Four years later, the real estate mogul, who was the target of two assassination attempts during the campaign, was indicted and convicted in criminal and civil proceedings, will make an incredible return to the White House.

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He promised in a statement Saturday that his administration would “make America great again” and “restore strength, success and common sense to the Oval Office.”

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His first term was marked by a waltz of ministers and advisers who have successively fallen from grace. The question now is what the Trump administration will look like 2.

He made his first major appointment on Thursday: Susie Wiles, the architect of his campaign, will be his chief of staff, an ultra-strategic position that had never been held by a woman.

The rest is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. RFK Jr., the assassinated president’s nephew and a former independent candidate who rallied to Donald Trump, could be given responsibilities in public health.

Another key figure is expected to be billionaire Elon Musk, who campaigned heavily for Donald Trump. The president-elect could task the world’s richest man with a major overhaul of the federal administration.

“Mass expulsions”

Handing over the keys to the White House to the Republican will, however, be a huge humiliation for outgoing President Joe Biden, who is accused by his camp of having facilitated this resounding comeback through hubris.

After weeks of lackluster campaigning, Biden withdrew from the race in July, weighed down by his age, 81, in favor of his vice president. The latter, who described her opponent as a “fascist” and a “danger to democracy,” failed to convince Americans that she understood their economic and security concerns.

According to exit polls, voters’ top concerns were the economy and inflation, which had soared under Biden after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Donald Trump promised Americans he would make their lives better with tax cuts and tariffs. The Republican also said he would carry out “massive” expulsions of irregular migrants.

He will be able to rely on the Senate, which the Republicans took back from the Democrats, and possibly on the House of Representatives, where his party is on track to retain the majority.

The vote count is not finished in Arizona, but for the rest Donald Trump has won the six other “Swing States”. And he is almost certain to win the popular vote against Kamala Harris.

He will then be the first Republican president in 20 years to achieve this feat, proving wrong the pollsters who predicted the opposite.