They’ve been arch-enemies for years, but until today Donald Trump and Barack Obama had never actually met. And their first encounter was at the White House, with the whole world watching.
The President-elect and the outgoing President were set for one of the most uncomfortable political meetings of all time.
It was set against Obama saying Trump was “uniquely unfit” to lead the country, and Trump spending years questioning - wrongly - whether Obama was born in America.
After their private meeting, Obama told reporters the 90-minute meeting was “excellent” - and his successor said he looked forward to receiving the outgoing President’s “counsel”. A surprise to many, Trump revealed they had “never met each other”.
At the close of the Oval Office sit-down, Obama said to Trump, “We now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed the country succeeds.”
Here are the first set of pictures to emerge
Obama told the journalists:
“I just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with President-elect Trump. It was wide-ranging.
“We talked about some of the organisational issues in setting up the White House. We talked about foreign policy, we talked about domestic policy. And as I said last night, my number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president elect is successful.
“And I have been very encouraged by the I think interest in president elect Trump’s wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces and I believe that it is important for all of us regardless of party and regardless of political preferences to now come together, work together, to deal with the many challenges that we face.
“And in the meantime Michelle has had a chance to greet the incoming First Lady and we had an excellent conversation with her as well. And we want to make sure they feel welcome as they prepare to make this transition.
“And most of all I want to emphasise to you, Mr President Elect, that we now are gonna want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed then the country succeeds.”
Trump then spoke:
“This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and we were just going to get to know each other. We had never met each other.
“I have great respect - the meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half, and it could have, as far as I’m concerned, it could have gone on for a lot longer. We really, we discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel.
“He’s explained some of the difficulties, some of the high flying assets and some of the really great things that have been achieved. So Mr President, it was a great honor being with you and I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future.”