Joe Biden is due to receive his Republican predecessor and successor at 11:00 a.m. local time (5:00 p.m. in Luxembourg) in the Oval Office, which the 78-year-old tribune will occupy for good, and for the second time, after his swearing in on the 20 January. The outgoing Democratic president pledged last week, after Donald Trump’s resounding victory, to ensure a “peaceful and orderly” transfer of power with the one he has repeatedly described as a danger to American democracy.
The visit promises to be humiliating for the octogenarian Democrat, who knows that a good part of his record could be reduced to nothing by the team that his rival is shaping, with appointments each more radical than the last. . Among the latest announced, Elon Musk, at the head of a new ministry of “government efficiency”, jointly with Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. The latter has already promised on X that the duo would “not take it easy”. If the three businessmen come to an enduring understanding, they could make drastic cuts in the federal budget and deregulate with all their might.
For Donald Trump, the meeting with Joe Biden will have a strong taste of revenge. He slammed the door of the White House on January 20, 2021, a few hours before Joe Biden entered it, without even attending the inauguration ceremony of his great rival. The Republican had also not organized this courtesy visit between the outgoing president and the elected president, a break among others by the unpredictable septuagenarian, with the customs in force in Washington for decades. Donald Trump believes the 2020 election was stolen from him.
According to Mike Johnson, Republican tenor in Congress, the president-elect could also take the lead on Wednesday at the Capitol, the building that his supporters stormed on January 6, 2021 to try to prevent the certification of the election of Joe Biden . His party is already assured of capturing the majority in the Senate, the upper house. The Republicans should also retain control of the other component of the American Congress, the House of Representatives. Taking into account a Supreme Court now firmly anchored to the right, Donald Trump will have free rein.
The president-elect is already moving forward to appoint his loyalists to very strategic positions. In addition to Elon Musk, he will entrust diplomacy to the influential senator Marco Rubio, known for being a supporter of a very hard line against China and Iran, and who is to become secretary of state.
At the White House itself, international relations in the new Trump era will be led by another “hawk”, Mike Waltz, in the very strategic position of National Security Advisor. For the defense, Donald Trump announced that he wanted to appoint Pete Hegseth, a former army major and current presenter of Fox Newshead of the Pentagon.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem would become Minister of Homeland Security, a portfolio that includes customs and border guards. Donald Trump campaigned on virulent anti-system rhetoric. He promised mass expulsions of irregular migrants and a radical protectionist shift in economic matters.
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