Nancy Pelosi once said Donald Trump would be “fumigated out” of the Oval Office if he lost the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden relished describing him as “the former guy” and “loser”. They thought the American nightmare was over.
Then, like in the movies, Democrats woke up in a cold sweat only to realise it wasn’t a dream after all. Instead they are doomed to be supporting players in a sequel. Trump: The Revenge. This time, it’s personal.
On Wednesday, Trump made a triumphant who’s-got-the-last-laugh-now return to Washington, probably the least Trumpy place in the nation: Kamala Harris got 92.5% of the vote here compared to his 6.7%. One of his most recent visits was to appear in court as a criminal defendant accused of an attempted coup.
But hey, who cares about that now? Sporting his red tie, Trump was back in the sacred space where Pelosi, Liz Cheney and others swore he must never foot again: the Oval Office. The 45th and soon-to-be 47th president was hosted by Biden, the 46th, to discuss the presidential transition, a courtesy he never extended to the man who beat him in 2020.
The pair sat on cream armchairs before a roaring log fire – the flames licking high and lustily as if to evoke Christopher Marlowe’s line, “Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.” Behind Biden was the bust of Robert Kennedy, a former Democratic senator whose son, Robert Kennedy Jr, helped deliver the White House to the Republican Trump.
“Well, Mr President-elect and former president … ,” Biden began, shaking the right hand of Trump, whose left hand didn’t quite know what to do as he breathed: “Thank you very much, Joe.”
Biden settled on, “Donald, congratulations” – the first time he had used his rival’s first name since the attempted assassination of Trump in July.
“Thank you very much,” Trump repeated.
Biden, hands on knees, continued: “And looking forward to having a, like we said, smooth transition. Do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, what you need. And we’re going to get a chance to talk about some of that today. Welcome. Welcome back.”
It was doubtless the right and only dignified thing to do, showing the world that the America is still in the business of a peaceful transfer of power despite the stink of 6 January 2021. Yet there is still something jarring about Democrats, who 10 days ago were proclaiming Trump a fascist and an existential threat to American democracy, now treating him like just another politician. The normalisation has begun.
Trump, fingers pressed together, rejoined: “Thank you very much. And politics is tough. And it’s, many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today. And I appreciate it very much – a transition that’s so smooth it’ll be as smooth as it can get. And I very much appreciate that, Joe.”
Biden replied: “You’re welcome.”
The last meeting of these men, combined age 159, in effect ended Biden’s political career. He performed disastrously at the first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, and ended up squabbling with Trump over who has the better golf swing. It set off a chain reaction that led Biden to drop out and endorse Harris for president.
Trump, for his part, has described Biden as “crooked”, “stupid”, a “low-IQ individual”, “mentally impaired” and the “worst president” in American history. There were times when the mutual loathing between them felt real and visceral. But on Wednesday they managed to keep it civil. Perhaps there was an even odd affinity between them.
Both have shown they can be egotistical, stubborn and convinced they are right. Biden long resisted calls to step down as the Democratic nominee and, after Harris’s failure, may now be feeling a certain told-you-so vindication. Trump was denounced by the Kennedy, Bush, Clinton and Obama dynasties and yet rose Lazarus-like from the dead to win the 2024 national popular vote.
On Wednesday neither man answered questions shouted by the media. At one point, Biden looked at Trump, who moved his head to the side and gave a small shrug but did not respond. Their pair then talked in private for roughly two hours.
Oh, to be a fly on that wall! Did Biden try some psychological jujitsu to maintain influence over his successor? Did he brag that he would have beaten Trump again if only Pelosi hadn’t meddled? Did they, in a rare moment of unity, agree that Barack Obama is a know-it-all or JD Vance is just plain weird? Did they agree to settle all the partisan debates that have racked US politics over the past decade on the golf course?
The meeting was the latest chapter in the strange history of Trump and Washington, a city he spent four years living on rather than in. His only excursions beyond the White House were to a steakhouse at his nearby hotel, now under different ownership. During the election campaign, he repeatedly called Washington a place of “filth”, “decay”, “broken buildings” and “graffiti”. The feeling among locals is mutual.
But returning to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Trump was greeted with thunderous applause by Republicans in the House of Representatives. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, had declared: “He is the comeback king. We owe him a great debt of gratitude.” The president-elect was accompanied not by his wife, Melania, but by his political muse, Bond villain Elon Musk.
In one of his joking-not-joking asides, Trump told Republicans: “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ‘He’s so good, we got to figure something else out.’” Somehow it lands differently coming from a man who counts Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un as political soulmates.
Afterwards the congressman Troy Nehls, who recently backed a proposal to rename a Washington airport after Trump, told reporters that Republicans must embrace every word of his agenda. “If Donald Trump says, ‘Jump three feet high and scratch your head,’ we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads,” he said.
So much for all the fables and morality tales that teach children to be a good person because liars and cheats never prosper. Trump tried to overthrow the US government and has been rewarded with unparalleled control of the US government. But like Obama before him, Biden intends to treat his successor with grace and hope a few embers of his legacy survive the fire.