United States President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump made a public show yesterday of putting their bitter differences aside after a stunning election upset.
The Oval Office meeting brought together a president who has darkly warned that Trump could not be trusted with the nuclear codes and a successor who rose to political prominence questioning Obama’s birthplace and legitimacy.
“My No. 1 priority in the next two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our President-elect is successful,” Obama said. “I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds,” Obama told Trump as the two sat side-by-side after the roughly 90-minute meeting originally scheduled for 10 minutes. The president called the session “excellent” and wide-ranging.
Trump thanked Obama for the meeting. “Mr President, it was a great honour being with you and I look forward to being with you many, many more times,” Trump said, adding that he and Obama had spoken about some wonderful and difficult things and “some high-flying assets.”
It was not immediately clear about what he meant.
The President-elect also said he would seek “counsel” from Obama. As the pool of reporters were led out, Trump told them several times that Obama was “a very good man.” Trump, who said he had never met Obama before and expected the meeting to last only 10 or 15 minutes, said it had been a “great honour” to sit with the president.
“We discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel,” Trump said.
Trump, whose election on Tuesday stunned the president and rocked the political establishment in Washington, arrived in the White House driveway out of sight of the crowds of reporters and news media cameras assembled there. His staff had refused to arrange for journalists to document his movements, as is customary both for the president and the president-elect, and Obama’s team did not arrange for the traditional photograph of the sitting president and his wife greeting their successors in front of the White House.
Obama said his wife, Michelle, who emerged during the campaign as an outspoken critic of Trump on the campaign trail, met with Trump’s wife, Melania while their husbands spoke in the Oval Office.
“We want to make sure that they feel welcome,” Obama said of the Trumps. The meetings unfolded as Obama’s staff was starting the daunting business of handing over the vast bureaucracy of the United States government to Trump’s staff, including vital national security information and resources he would need in the event of a catastrophic attack.
Meanwhile, despite pleas for unity, thousands of protesters gathered across the United States for a second day yesterday, with many chanting: “Not my president.”
No fewer than 25 cities were filled overnight with demonstrators targeting Trump’s properties across the country in massive street rallies. In New York, about 5,000 people protested Trump’s victory outside Trump Tower, authorities estimated. They included pop star Lady Gaga, a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter.
Their concerns ranged from policies, such as Trump’s proposed plan to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, to the polarizing tenor of his campaign that they say stoked xenophobic fears. “I came out here to let go of a lot of fear that was sparked as soon as I saw the results,” protester Nick Powers said in New York.
He said he feared Trump will support stronger stop-and-frisk policies that would put many people in prison. Powers said he was also worried that Trump’s victory would embolden sexist views. At least 15 protesters at Trump Tower were arrested Wednesday night for disorderly conduct, New York police said.
In Oakland, California, protesters hurled Molotov cocktails, rocks and fireworks at police. Three officers were injured, Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said. Throughout the evening, the large group splintered into smaller groups that began vandalizing numerous businesses in the downtown area,” Oakland police said.
In Chicago, activists marched down Lake Shore Drive, an eight-lane expressway along Lake Michigan toward the Windy City’s Trump Tower. “I still can’t believe I have to protest for civil rights,” one sign read.
In Los Angeles, Trump effigy was torched. More than 1,000 protesters rallied outside Los Angeles City Hall, including many young Latinos. They chanted, “I will not live in fear,” “Fight back, stand up” and “¡Si se puede!” (Spanish for “Yes, it can be done”). Protesters also set on fire a piñata depicting the head of the president-elect.
Protesters in Washington chanted, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” as they marched downtown to the Trump International Hotel. Elsewhere in the nation’s capital, an illuminated sign proclaimed that the US is “Better Than Bigotry
