USA Biden and Trump meet at the White House on Wednesday

Following Republican Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, Democratic incumbent Joe Biden will receive his former opponent at the White House on Wednesday. This was announced by Biden's spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre. The meeting is scheduled for 11.00 a.m. local time (5.00 p.m. CET) in the Oval Office, the President's official residence.

Biden (81) had already called Trump (78) shortly after the election, congratulated him on his victory and invited him to the White House. This is part of the usual way of dealing with a change of power in the USA. However, Trump broke with such conventions in 2020.

The Republican ran against Biden in that election and lost - but he has not conceded defeat to this day. At the time, Trump not only did not invite Biden to the White House, but also stayed away from his inauguration.

Wednesday's meeting is one of the rare direct encounters between Biden and Trump. The last time the two faced each other on stage was at the end of June during a televised debate during the election campaign. However, the debate was so disastrous for Biden that he withdrew from the presidential race shortly afterwards under pressure from his party and then supported his vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

On September 11, Biden and Trump had also both attended a ceremony in New York to commemorate the devastating terrorist attacks in the USA 23 years earlier. However, there was no major exchange there as there was during the TV debate or at the upcoming meeting in Washington.

Trump is due to be sworn in for his second term as head of state on January 20.

SDA