Donald Trump has made his first return to the White House, to meet with Joe Biden, and the optics were, frankly, amusing.

First of all, this meeting did not happen four years ago between Trump and Biden, though the one between Obama and Trump four years before that certainly was hilarious. Obama looked like he wanted to be anywhere else than where he was.

WATCH: President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump talk to the press after meeting at the White House. pic.twitter.com/ghkUDLPdCY

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 10, 2016

The state of the country four years ago during COVID would have likely cancelled this kind of confab between Trump and Biden, even without Trump’s opinions about the election. It is actually nice to see some cordiality between the current heads of the Democrat and Republican parties, even if it is a show for the cameras. Melania avoiding Jill is fine – neither of them were elected, and Melania already knows what it is like to be First Lady. This meeting between the Once and Future President and the Ghost of Presidents Past has a little more political heft to it.

“I look forward…to having a smooth transition. We’ll do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, what you need,” President Biden said as cameras and reporters were briefly allowed in the Oval Office for the meeting.

Speaking second, Trump emphasized that “politics is tough and in many cases it’s not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today.

“I appreciate very much the transition that’s so smooth. It will be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that, the former and future president added.

Once Biden is done talking and the press starts shouting questions, the biggest shit-eating grin literally plasters itself on Joe Biden’s face. POLITICO had reported that he was “dreading” the meeting. This… does not look like someone who is upset and just barely holding it together.

I’m legitimately not sure which of these men is happier that Kamala Harris lost pic.twitter.com/fdutNSioVY

— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) November 13, 2024

Now, we all know why Trump would be happy. He won! He is busy naming his picks for his new administration, and is ready to start fixing the problems that he named so many times on the campaign trail. But compare Joe Biden, and his body language and facial expressions, to Barack Obama eight years ago. The contrast is stark, and almost comical in their differences.

Obama definitely saw Trump’s election as a blow to his own personal brand. Biden, on the other hand, had already been stabbed in the proverbial back by his fellow Democrats, been forced out of his own nomination, and despite all the hand-wringing that Nancy Pelosi is doing now, Democrat leadership back in July universally pivoted to Kamala Harris as the only logical choice (and the only one who could access the money already raised by the Biden campaign machine).

Nancy Pelosi pre election: Who needs an open primary?

Nancy Pelosi post election: What we needed was an open primary.pic.twitter.com/KKvheN6eUS

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) November 13, 2024

No wonder Nancy Pelosi says she is doing “terrible” right now. Four years ago, she sat at the top of a Democrat trifecta – they had the House, the Senate, and the White House. How things have changed, and at her own hand.

Would things really have been different for the Democrats if Joe Biden had been allowed to keep going? No – everyone saw what happened on the debate stage, and the knockout punch that the Gold Star families delivered during the RNC – but because Biden was forced out, HE gets to believe for the rest of his life that he would have had a shot at defeating Trump again. And he is a petty and vindictive old man. He got the proverbial heave-ho right off the Truman Balcony, but Kamala Harris will never be up there by herself, either. And that apparently is putting a huge smile on the old man’s face. This is the second time that Biden has spoken about the results of the election where he just looks gleeful. After all, what does he care? In his mind, the Democrats are reaping what they have sowed – they removed him from power, and now they are removed from power. Of course Joe Biden is happy!

Come January, after wielding the last powers granted to him to either pardon Hunter or commute his sentence, Joe Biden will shuffle off to the sandy beaches of Delaware to wait for the end. There will be no “active” post-presidential career for him, short of a tell-all book and some plans for a presidential library that he will likely not see completed (the Obama library is digital and the opulent “center” being built in Chicago is still very much under construction eight years after he left office). At this rate, I wouldn’t even trust that Biden will give his supposed eulogy for Jimmy Carter unless it is pre-recorded. Joe Biden is going to fade away on his beach with a smile on his face, knowing that the Democrat party burned itself down to remove him from the presidential ticket.

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons/cropped/adjusted/CC BY-SA 2.0.