Donald Trump meets Joe Biden to prepare for president switch

Current US President Joe Biden has hosted Donald Trump for a visit at the White House, where the US president lives and works.

It's a traditional part of the handover from one president to the next.

Donald Trump, who won the recent presidential election, will take over as president for a second time on 20 January 2025.

The official handover will be at an event called the Inauguration, where the new president swears an oath to the country.

The meeting, which is to help the next president organise moving in his team, was bound to be a bit awkward, as the two men said lots of unkind things about each other during the election.

During a chat in front of cameras, Mr Trump told President Biden that politics is "tough", adding that "in many cases it's not a nice world... but it's a nice world today."

Mr Trump then thanked him for a smooth changeover of power.

"I appreciate very much a transition that's so smooth, it'll be as smooth as it can get," Trump says.

President Biden said "You're welcome", before the two went off to the president's office - the Oval Office - to privately discuss the handover of power and other topics.

The day started with Donald Trump naming some of his top team for when he does take over.

He then flew from his home in Florida to the US capital city, Washington DC.

There he spoke to senior politicians from his party about his plans and to celebrate his win before heading to meet Mr Biden.

It was also announced that Mr Trump's wife Melania - the next First Lady - wasn't going to meet the current First Lady Jill Biden.

The previous time Mr Trump and President Biden met in public was during a TV presidential debate ahead of the election.

They insulted each other, shouted over each other, and President Biden even told Mr Trump to "shut up" in a bad-tempered discussion.

Many people thought the debate was a bad moment for President Biden, who struggled at times, and not long afterwards he decided not to run again and was replaced by Kamala Harris as his party's candidate.

Before he first became president in 2017 Donald Trump attended a similar meeting at the White House with President Obama.

The two men spoke for more than an hour in the Oval Office and when they emerged, they tried to put their arguments behind them, speaking warmly about unity and a peaceful handover.

There aren't any photos of Mr Biden meeting then President Trump in 2020 ahead of their switchover, because it didn't happen - at that time Donald Trump was falsely claiming that he actually won the election and the results were fake.