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    • Trump makes victorious return to Washington to meet with Biden and GOP lawmakers
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    Trump makes victorious return to Washington to meet with Biden and GOP lawmakers

    Umito Posted on

    Will Weissert and Lisa Mascaro
    | Associated Press

    Washington – Donald Trump makes a victorious return to Washington.

    The president-elect’s plane landed Wednesday morning at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, and Trump arrived near the Capitol for a meeting with House Republicans as they prepare for a potentially unified Republican government and takeover. power.

    Returning to Washington for the first time since his election victory, Trump told lawmakers: “It feels good to win. »

    The private meeting, which comes ahead of Trump’s meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House in the traditional peaceful transfer of power, highlights the former president’s return to Washington. Trump arrives in the middle of Republican congressional leadership elections, which could leave his mark on the outcome.

    It’s a stunning return to the seat of U.S. government for the former president, who left nearly four years ago a diminished and politically defeated leader after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but who is preparing to return to power with what he and his GOP allies see as a governing mandate.

    “He’s the comeback king,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said before Trump arrived. “We owe him a great debt of gratitude.”

    President Joe Biden – both Trump’s successor and predecessor – will welcome him to the Oval Office. It is a traditional part of the peaceful transfer of power, but also a ritual that Trump himself refused to participate in four years ago.

    Before his White House session, Trump met privately with congressional Republicans as they focused on his first-day priorities and prepared for a potentially unified government with a Republican Party power grab in Washington. His visit, in the midst of Republican congressional leadership elections, could leave its mark on the outcome.

    “I expect him to give a great message today, more like a locker room speech preparing everyone for what’s coming in January,” Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” The new Congress will be sworn in about two weeks before Trump takes office on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025.

    Unusually, Trump is accompanied on his trip by billionaire Elon Musk. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, whom Trump named Tuesday to an advisory role to the government on efficiency, is not expected to attend the White House meeting. But before that he will join Trump’s meeting with House Republicans.

    Musk spent much of his time at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida property, and participated in meetings as the new Trump administration prepares to transition to Biden’s. Some close to Trump and his team now view the billionaire as the second most influential figure in Trump’s immediate orbit, after Susie Wiles, the campaign manager who is Trump’s new chief of staff.

    For Trump, it’s a stunning return to the seat of U.S. government after he left nearly four years ago as a diminished and politically defeated leader following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but is bracing for to return to power with what he and his GOP allies view as a governance mandate.

    Johnson said Republicans were “ready to deliver” on Trump’s “America First” agenda.

    After his 2016 election victory, Trump met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and called it a “great honor.” But he quickly began to insult Obama again, notably accusing his predecessor – without proof – of having wiretapped. him during the 2016 campaign.

    Four years later, Trump disputed his 2020 election loss to Biden, and he continued to lie about widespread voter fraud that didn’t happen. He did not invite Biden, then president-elect, to the White House and he left Washington without attending Biden’s inauguration. This was the first time this had happened since Andrew Johnson took the oath of office from Ulysses S. Grant 155 years ago.

    Biden insists he will do everything in his power to make the transition to the next Trump administration go smoothly. This is despite spending more than a year campaigning for re-election and denouncing Trump as a threat to democracy and the nation’s core values. Biden then withdrew from the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.

    Following the election, the president abandoned his dire warnings about Trump, saying in a speech last week: “The American experiment endures. Everything will be fine for us. »

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is committed to “making sure that this transition is effective and efficient and he’s doing it because it’s the norm, yes, but also the right thing to do for the American people.”

    “We want this to go well,” added Jean-Pierre. “We want this to be a process that gets the job done.”

    Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the administration would respect the “responsible handoff from one president to the next, which is in the best tradition of our country.”

    “They will go over the main issues – both domestic and foreign policy issues – including what’s happening in Europe, Asia and the Middle East,” Sullivan told CBS about Wednesday’s meeting. . “And the president will have an opportunity to explain to President Trump how he sees things…and to talk to President Trump about how President Trump plans to approach these issues when he takes office.” »

    Traditionally, when the outgoing and incoming presidents meet in the West Wing, the first lady welcomes her successor to the residence floor. But her office said Melania Trump was not present, saying in a statement that “her husband’s return to the Oval Office to begin the transition process is encouraging and she wishes him every success.”

    When Trump left Washington in 2021, even some prominent Republicans had begun to denounce his role in inciting the mobilization of a mob of his supporters who had staged the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol a few weeks earlier, attempting to prevent the certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

    But his election victory last week completes a political comeback that has seen Trump once again become the undisputed leader of the Republican Party.

    Wednesday’s trip, however, is not the first time Trump has returned to the Capitol area since the end of his first term. Congressional Republicans welcomed Trump over the summer, as Trump once again consolidated his dominance over the party.

    His latest visit comes as Republicans, who wrested the Senate majority from Democrats in last week’s elections and are poised to retain GOP control of the House, are in the midst of their own House elections. management which take place behind closed doors on Wednesday.

    The president-elect’s arrival will give fresh momentum to Johnson, who has moved ever closer to Trump as he strives to retain his majority — and his own job with the gavel.

    The speaker said he expects to see Trump several times throughout the week, including at an event later in the evening, and at the president-elect’s property at Mar-a-Lago in Florida “all weekend”.

    It’s unclear whether Trump will also head to the Senate, which is embroiled in an even more contentious closed-door election in the three-way race to replace outgoing Republican Party leader Mitch McConnell.

    Trump allies are pushing Republican senators to vote for Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who was a long-shot candidate challenging two other high-ranking Republicans, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, for the position.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Darelene Superville and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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