By Kate Scanlon

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — President Joe Biden welcomed President-elect Donald Trump to the White House Nov. 13 for an Oval Office visit, a ritual part of the U.S. tradition of a peaceful transfer of power between presidents, and one that Trump declined four years earlier.

In brief remarks in the Oval Office, Biden told Trump, who is both his predecessor and successor in the role, congratulated Trump on his election to a second term and pledged a “smooth transition.”

“It will be as smooth as it can get and I very much appreciate that, Joe,” Trump said.

In 2020, when Trump lost that year’s election to Biden, he declined to invite Biden, then his successor, for such a meeting as Trump contested the results of that election. The two men have been bitter political rivals, although Biden called Trump in the aftermath of an assassination attempt against him in July to express his concern.

At the White House, Trump told Biden, “Politics is tough and in many cases it’s not a nice world but it is a nice world today.”

Mark J. Rozell, the founding dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, told OSV News that “what makes this meeting especially noteworthy is the signal it sends to the country that there is a peaceful and cooperative transfer of power occurring.”

“That is a notable difference from four years ago when Trump refused to have this meeting with President-elect Biden,” said Rozell, who has studied the U.S. presidency, religion and politics including the evolution of the Catholic vote in the United States. “Much of the country was on edge about the election outcome being accepted by the losers and whether there would be a proper transition process. The kind words expressed by Biden and Trump send exactly the right message that the democratic process is sound and functioning as it should.”

Presidential transitions, he added, “have not always been smooth and that can have an impact on the ability of the new administration to hit the ground running on day 1one.”

A spokesperson for the White House said first lady Jill Biden joined the president in greeting Trump upon his arrival to the White House, and “she gave Mr. Trump a handwritten letter of congratulations for Mrs. Trump, which also expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition.”