Melania Trump To Skip White House Meeting With Jill Biden: Report
Traditionally, when the outgoing President hosts the incoming President-elect in the Oval Office, the first lady hosts her successor for tea in the residence.Jill Biden extended Melania Trump the customary invitation last week as her husband also invited the President-elect to the Oval Office, a symbolic gesture to show the country and the world that there will be a peaceful transition of power — and an implicit rebuke of Donald Trump, who refused Joe Biden the same meeting in 2020 as he contested that election’s results. The two are set to meet on Wednesday at 11 a.m., according to the White House.
Melania and Jill have yet to speak in the aftermath of Kamala Harris’ humiliating defeat, even though their husbands had a cordial phone call, sources confirmed.
“Mrs. Trump is not going, and they have not spoken,” a source with knowledge said of the first ladies told DailyMail.com of Wednesday’s presidential sitdown.
There was discussion about encouraging Melania Trump to come to Washington for the meeting, as some members of the President-elect’s team felt it was important. But the incoming first lady, who spent her first four years in office redefining the role and what was expected, is laying an early marker indicating she will have even more autonomy the second time around.
Aside from 2020, it has been tradition for the current first lady to host the incoming first lady at the White House.
The last time Jill Biden and Melania Trump would have seen each other would have been at Rosalynn Carter’s funeral in November of last year. All living former first ladies attended.
Four years ago, Donald Trump snubbed Joe Biden after Biden defeated him, refusing to invite him for the traditional Oval Office meeting and delaying the transition process. Melania Trump followed her husband’s lead and didn’t reach out to Jill Biden.
