Washington, DC – November 10 will go down in the history of US Presidential elections as one of the great domestic diplomatic days as the US witnessed in one day the incumbent President Barack Obama hosting President-elect Donald Trump, the First Lady Michelle Obama having a “Chai” with the next First lady Melanie Trump and the Vice President Joe Biden meeting his successor Mike Pence.
First Lady Michelle Obama hosted future first lady Melania Trump for “chai” (tea) at her private residence, the White House told IAT. President Barack Obama also met face-to-face with his successor, President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House. IAT notes that the two ladies also came to the Oval Office after the journalists had left after a brief photo spray post the meeting. The meeting extended to more than 90 minutes instead of the planned 15 minutes.
The meeting between the First Lady and the Future First Lady came several months after Melania Trump was criticized after a chunk of her speech at the Republican National Convention appeared to have been lifted from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic convention.
According to the White House, the First Lady and Melania Trump discussed the experience of raising children at the White House and being good parents, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.
There was also a great moment (sans the media) with Michelle Obama giving the future first lady a tour of the residence, including stepping out onto the Truman Balcony, and they also had a tour with White House curator Bill Allman.
An interesting point to note is that Melania Trump was born in 1970, in a small industrial hometown Sevnica, which was part of Communist Yugoslavia and today forty-six years later, she is married to the next US president.
Earlier the US President Obama and Trump met alone in the Oval Office for 90 minutes. Obama said he wanted to make Trump and his family “feel welcome as we prepare to make this transition.”
“Mr. President, it was a great honor being with you, and I look forward being with you many, many more times,” Trump said.
Pledging a smooth transition, Obama told Trump that “we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed — because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.”
In a more subtle meeting where the media was completely shut out, the Vice President Joe Biden met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence in the Vice President’s West Wing office.
The sketchy details of the meeting came from a White House readout and a statement from Pence’s press secretary Marc Lotter. The meeting was “warm and professional,” according to the statement.
On the other hand, Biden’s office said. “This afternoon, Vice President Biden met with Vice President-elect Pence in the Vice President’s West Wing office. They spoke about their time working together in Congress and their friendship dating back many years. The Vice President talked with the Vice President-elect about the key duties of the Vice President, and discussed a number of specific policy portfolios that have been a critical focus for him during his time in office, including NATO and eastern Europe and expanding access to the middle class.”
“The Vice President again offered his full support to the Vice President-elect in order to ensure a smooth and seamless transition of power. The Vice President and Vice President-elect chatted about their families, and the Vice President renewed his invitation for the entire Pence family to join him and Dr. Biden for dinner at the Naval Observatory,” the statement concluded.