US president-elect Donald Trump went to the White House today to meet US president Barack Obama. There are no photos of his arrival.
Departing from protocol, Trump did not allow journalists to tag along in his motorcade or in his plane, and no documentation has emerged yet of his historic arrival at the White House. In 2008, Barack Obama’s arrival and greeting by then-president George W. Bush was photographed, as was Bush’s own arrival in 2000.
According to the Associated Press, Trump departed New York for Washington DC this morning. Although Trump left his pool behind, Obama’s dedicated press pool and journalists invited by the White House still covered the event at a press op after their meeting.
The press’s access to the president is one of the mechanisms by which democratic transparency is ensured, and US citizens kept informed.
From AP:
Every president in recent memory has traveled with a pool of journalists when they leave the White House grounds. A pool of reporters and photographers were in the motorcade when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas.
The pool was just steps away from President Ronald Reagan when he was shot outside a hotel in the District of Columbia, and was stationed outside his hospital room as he recovered. The pool also travels on vacation and foreign trips and at times captures personal, historic moments of the presidency.
At the end of Obama and Trump’s 1.5 hour meeting, here’s what they looked like:
