US President Joe Biden hosted President-elect Trump at the White House on Wednesday, more than a week after Trump's landslide victory in the November 5, 2024 elections. This was the first US presidential transition meeting in eight years, when former President Barack Obama received President-elect Trump after he won the elections and defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the November 8, 2016 elections.

The traditional meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents came after Biden pledged to maintain a peaceful transition of power.

Biden welcomed Trump and said he looked forward to a smooth transition between administrations, and Trump, in turn, thanked Biden and noted the difficulty of politics, according to a joint White House report.

For her part, first lady Jill Biden helped welcome Trump when he arrived at the White House and gave him a letter to deliver to his wife, Melania Trump, expressing her team's "readiness to assist with the transition," according to a joint report.

According to sources, the two men briefly discussed the issue of the American prisoners in Gaza, while the families of the Israeli prisoners complained of the lack of news about them recently.

Channel 12 Israel quoted the prisoners' families as saying that the number of signs of life among the prisoners has been decreasing recently, and that they have not received any signs of life or indication of their condition for a long time.

The channel also quoted some families as saying that in the past they had received periodic information in various ways through returned prisoners or through other means, and that as time passed the information available became less and less.

On the other hand, White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre confirmed that Qatar and Egypt are engaged in negotiations to reach an agreement that would pave the way for the release of prisoners in Gaza, while the families of prisoners in Gaza are talking about the decreasing signs of their survival.

The spokeswoman added during a press conference that Washington believes that there are a number of initiatives and methods that would enable an agreement to be reached between Hamas and Israel.

Trump had refused to host Biden in 2020 while challenging the results of the 2020 election.

The last high-profile meeting between the two men was during the June 27 presidential debate, where Biden criticized Trump as a convicted felon with “the manners of a cat running from one alley to another.”

Biden lost the debate in a way that ruined his political fortunes.

Throughout the election campaign, which ended on November 5, Democrats sought to portray Trump as a threat to democracy and even a fascist.