Daily Times

WASHINGTON: President Barak Obama on Thursday welcomed at the White House president-elect Donald Trump, who frequently questioned his presidency being a naturalised US citizen.

President Obama had invited the president-elect to join him at the Oval Office, when he phoned him on the election night to congratulate him over his unprecedented victory.

Both Obama and Trump had exchanged vitriolic comments in the past. After Obama won the election in 2008, Trump questioned his citizenship. It was asserted that President Obama had born in Kenya, not Hawaii.

Anyone born outside the United States could not become the US president. The controversy had compelled President Obama to release his birth certificate in 2011. However, it took Trump another five years to concede that he was wrong about President Obama’s place of birth.

At a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in 2011, President Obama had humiliated Trump and cracked jokes about his reality TV show. He, then, also showed a cartoon depicting what the White House would look like under Trump.

President Obama probably did not have the slightest idea that after five years he would welcome the same Trump as his successor.

And Trump did not miss any opportunity to undermine the presidency of President Obama. He repeatedly cast doubts on his citizenship and his Christian faith.

“He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim,” Trump told Fox News in 2011.

In his private luxury airplane, president-elect Trump landed at Reagan International Airport which is just a few miles from the White House. He drove straight to meet President Obama.

Both the president and the president-elect discussed the transition of power. They agreed the time was upon both Republican and Democrats to work together after a rather divisive and polarised election campaign.

Bitter enemies for years, both leaders resolved to unite the United States in coming years. President Obama hoped that his successor would be a successful president and continue to adhere to the American ideals and principles.

President-elect Trump called President Obama “a very fine man” during the meeting.

President Obama told reporters that if “Trump succeeds, America succeeds”. Trump said he would seek Obama’s counsel as president and Obama promised his full cooperation in the transition period.

Later, Trump met House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Vice president-elect Mike Pence, who travelled with the president-elect, called on vice president Joe Biden. The Trump-Obama meeting looked out of question just a week ago, when Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was declared favourite by the mainstream US media.

The core of Trump’s campaign was his claim that Obama was incompetent. Obama took part in Mrs Clinton’s campaign at several occasions and ridiculed Trump more than once. However, after the unexpected results of November 8 elections, both Trump and Obama sought to set politics aside and get on with the process of transition.

“We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country. The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. And over the next few months, we are going to show that to the world,” Obama said on Wednesday.

Two of Donald Trump’s most vociferous loyalists, Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie, almost dismissed the chances of Trump sending Clinton to jail, something he had asserted during his campaign.

“I think it’s a tough decision,” Giuliani told CNN. “It’s been a tradition in our politics to put things behind us. On the other hand, you have to look at how bad was it? Because suppose somebody comes along a year from now and is alleged to have stolen $50,000 from a charity – and (Clinton) was never investigated for hundreds of millions.”

Giuliani is likely to be appointed the US attorney general under the new administration. He already served as an associate attorney general under former president Reagan. He was the mayor of New York when 9/11 tragedy jolted the world.

Christie, who is being tipped as Trump’s chief of staff, was non-committal when asked by the NBC about Clinton’s future.

“Politics are over now, people have spoken, time to move on. People voted for Donald Trump to be president of the United States. It is now his job – and I am confident he will – to bring the country together,” he said.