The White House is officially in transition mode, as the country will have to hand the presidency over to Donald Trump in January. President Obama and Trump met today to discuss the transition, and later addressed the public about their meeting.
Trump said that he would seek the counsel of president Obama upon assuming the White House, and called the president a "very good man," saying how much respect he has for Obama. The president characterized the meeting as "an excellent" and "wide ranging" conversation, adding that he wants Trump and his wife, Melania, to feel "comfortable."
But given the campaign that Trump has been running against the Obamas long before his campaign started, it's not all transition business as usual.
Contrary to a Wall Street Journal report that the president and first lady decided not to hold the photo-shoot—which is usually taken on the south lawn of the White House when a new president is elected—White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest denied the claims. He added that the South Lawn photo was of "lower priority" than one of the president-elect and President Obama in the Oval Office.
But it's not difficult to understand why eyebrows were raised at the missed photo-op of the four. Trump attacked both the president and first lady throughout his campaign (and even earlier: Trump lead the movement that believes the president was not born in the US), and the first couple vocally opposed Trump's candidacy and his campaign.
The canceled photo-op is not the only, or the most important, departure from tradition in the White House's transition. Trump, who was the gleeful center of global media attention since he announced his campaign over a year ago, did not allow journalists to travel with him to today's meeting with the president.
The Associated Press reports that Trump flew to Washington DC in his private jet and without the standard photojournalists and reporters.
Today was merely step one in the transition process, and Trump said in the press briefing that he looks forward to meeting with president Obama many more times.
