President Obama phoned President-elect Donald Trump early Wednesday morning and invited Mr. Trump to the White House Thursday, as Mr. Trump prepares to transition into the office after his stunning win over Hillary Clinton.
“From the White House residence, the president phoned Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory early this morning,” according to a statement from the White House. “The president also called Secretary Clinton and expressed admiration for the strong campaign she waged throughout the country.”
“The president invited the president-elect to meet with him at the White House on Thursday, November 10th, to update him on the transition planning his team has been working on for nearly a year,” the statement said. “Ensuring a smooth transition of power is one of the top priorities the president identified at the beginning of the year and a meeting with the president-elect is the next step.”
The White House also said Mr. Obama will make a Wednesday statement at the White House “to discuss the election results and what steps we can take as a country to come together after this hard-fought election season.”
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Mr. Trump actually missed Mr. Obama’s initial call and had to call him back.
“But then Donald Trump called the president and they spoke in the wee hours of the night — had a very productive conversation, and they plan to meet maybe as soon as tomorrow,” Ms. Conway said on “Fox & Friends.”
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“And it was a gracious conversation between Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump earlier in the night, maybe an hour before that,” she said. “She called and congratulated him, conceded to him, and Mr. Trump commended Secretary [Clinton] — that she’s tough and smart and had waged a very hard-fought campaign.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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