White House Obama meets his nemesis Trump launched his political career by questioning Obama's place of birth. On Thursday, Obama showed Trump his new home.

They had never met before.

They have hated each other intensely from afar, each to the other the prime example of what so many Americans get wrong, and what they needed to run for president to try to correct.


Thursday, they spent 90 minutes alone in the Oval Office.

Afterward, they tried to tell everyone they’d gotten along and everything was going to be all right.

Glasses of water with the presidential seal were on the tables at either side, still with their protective paper tops on, untouched. They refused to answer any questions beyond their prepared remarks, including one that is on many minds: “Do you still consider him a threat to the republic?”

President Barack Obama spoke first. President-elect Donald Trump barely looked at him, his eyes on the floor, darting around the room, his face a little red, his son-in-law Jared Kushner—who had just had a long walk around the South Lawn of the White House with Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough, potentially indicating the sort of role he’ll have in the Trump administration—taking photos of the meeting on his iPhone. He was framed by a painting of the Statue of Liberty’s torch on the curved wall above his head, a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. that Obama treasures behind him.

At points, Obama spoke to the reporters, at points to Trump. But he looked straight at him at the end.

“Most of all, 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 said, Trump’s face turning to him fully for the first time.

Trump called him “a very good man.”

Then he started his remarks with something that was not true: “This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes,” Trump said.

The meeting had been scheduled to last an hour. The reporters brought into the Oval Office at the end were told long before not to even assemble for the brief access at its end until the meeting would have been going on for 30 minutes.

There was no vitriol, no bluster. He spoke calmly, a little hesitantly, but still distinctively Trump.

“We really—we discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties,” Trump said. “He explained some of the difficulties, some of the high-flying assets and some of the really great things that have been achieved.”

Obama looked straight at Trump throughout, his hands clasped, his back a little hunched, as Trump said he expected to be calling on the president’s counsel, and to being with him again many times in the future.

Obama nodded at the end.

Another question that Obama didn’t answer, shouted at him by a reporter: Do you think Trump will uproot your legacy?

The anger is bubbling at the White House, along with the shock. The traditional couples photo with the Trumps and Obamas at the arrival was scrapped. Instead of driving in to come in through the West Wing lobby entrance, as was expected, Trump’s motorcade pulled in to the South Lawn, out of view of reporters or the White House staffers who had gathered on the steps of the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building to see him arrive.

In the Secret Service shed at the entrance to the White House Wednesday morning, two riot gear shields rested against the wall.

As reporters waited to enter the Oval Office, emergency vehicle sirens went off, creating a buzz. Several heard something they were convinced was a gunshot—though nothing was reported, and a cameraman insisted, probably correctly, that it was just a grounds lawnmower engine backfiring.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest, stone-faced as he joined reporters in the Oval Office for their brief access, entered the briefing room shortly after, having taken a moment with Obama to get up to speed with what was discussed.

Earnest kept using the word “tone” to explain why Obama and the White House staff are not as panicked as they clearly are. Trump’s tone early Wednesday morning after the race was called and he spoke to Obama. Trump’s tone in his victory speech. Trump’s tone in speaking to reporters in the Oval Office.

Earnest said Obama, among other things, briefed Trump on his trip to Greece and Germany next week, explaining the kinds of questions he’s likely to be asked from a nervous world and what he’s likely to say. They talked about organizing the White House, Earnest said.

They didn’t talk about Trump tweeting in August that “Obama will go down as the worst President in history on many topics but especially foreign policy.” They didn’t talk about Obama responding in a segment for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” two weeks ago, “Well @realDonaldTrump,” Obama said, “at least I will go down as a president.”

They did not fight, he insisted. They did not argue. But Obama hasn’t changed his mind about why he never wanted Trump anywhere near the room where they sat together Thursday.

“They did not re-create some sort of presidential debate in the Oval Office today,” Earnest said. "What I’m saying is that the forceful case that the president made on the campaign trail leading up to Election Day reflected his authentic views about the stakes of the election.”

As for Obama calling him totally unfit for office, Earnest said, “The two men did not re-litigate their differences in the Oval Office… we’re on to the next phase.”

Earnest also tried to toe the line on peaceful transition.

Obama “has been preparing for this moment and this meeting for the better part of a year,” he said.

Which is true in the sense of preparing to hand over the keys. But it’s completely not true in the sense that Obama was completely unprepared for this moment until 60 hours before, and doesn’t seem to really have been on Thursday.

Earnest was asked whether Trump and Obama had talked about tweeting from the Oval Office, or about birtherism. He said he didn’t know.

While he was speaking, Obama walked onto the South Lawn. The motorcade was gone. The president-elect was gone. The Trump aides who’d been walking around taking videos on their phones were gone.

In their place were the Cleveland Cavaliers, there for a world champion celebration. They even had prominently anti-Trump Ohio Gov. John Kasich out there with them.

Calling this basketball team champions was a pleasure, Obama said.

“That’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about hope, and change.”

