First Lady Jill Biden revealed what she and President-elect Donald Trump talked about while attending the reopening of Notre Dame in an interview published Wednesday.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team and White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The brief conversation between Biden and Trump marked a sign of unity after the presidential election, which saw frequent personal attacks amid increasing political polarization.
Photographs of Biden and Trump having a conversation at the reopening of the famous landmark on December 7, 2024, went viral just about a month after the election when Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris. Many speculated about what the two were talking about, but the details of their conversation remained unknown until Biden discussed it with The Washington Post in her exit interview.
What to Know
Jill Biden told the Post the president-elect made small talk with her after French first lady Brigitte Macron, who sat between them for much of the ceremony, left her seat. She said Trump told her he had a “good meeting” with President Biden in the Oval Office that lasted for two hours.
First lady Jill Biden and President-elect Donald Trump speak at the reopening of Notre-Dame in Paris, France on December 7, 2024. Jill Biden discussed their conversation in a Washington Post interview published Wednesday.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Notre-Dame de Paris
“Yes, because you’re both talkers,” Jill Biden responded.
The exchange went viral, particularly after Trump used a photograph from it in an advertisement for his line of colognes captioned, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist.”
Jill Biden said she spoke with Trump because she and President Biden “respect our institutions, our traditions.”
“It’s very important to me that they continue and we — What would be the point of nastiness?” she said.
Biden also addressed her feelings about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said on MSNBC in July that it is “up to the president to decide if he is going to run” even after he said he planned to stay in the race, despite calls at the time from many Democrats who believe his debate performance weakened the party’s chances of holding onto key seats in November.
Pelosi’s comments were viewed as a subtle way of encouraging him to withdraw and have been speculated to have been a sticking point between Pelosi and the Bidens.
“It’s been on my mind a lot lately, and — We were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing,” she told the Post.
What People Are Saying
Jill Biden’s exit interview, particularly her comments about Pelosi, went viral on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
GOP Strategist Doug Heye on X: “This quote shows how much it becomes about the politician instead of the people they’re there to serve. Pelosi knew Biden was/is no longer up to the task. But for the Biden protectors/enablers, his having the job was more important than his ability to do the do the job.”
President Joe Biden, in a letter on Wednesday: “It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years. Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States.”
What Happens Next
President-elect Trump is set to be inaugurated on January 20, 2025.
