Will Melania Trump and Jill Biden exchange gifts on White House steps after Joe's inauguration day?
After four nail-biting days following the Election Night, Joseph R Biden has become the 46th president of the United States, according to projections by multiple news organizations including AP, CNN, NYT, NBC, CNBC and more. This has led to many people having a number of queries -- one of them being whether current first lady Melania Trump and the future FLOTUS Jill Biden will exchange gifts on the president-elect's inauguration day in January.
We all remember the awkward receiving of a gift from Melania that Michelle Obama has to go through on the steps of the White House and she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, stood to invite then-new first family to the prestigious residence. A year later, on 'The Ellen Show' Michelle revealed that the gift was a "lovely frame." However, she candidly talked about how she was not prepared for Melania unexpectedly handing her Tiffany's box at the front steps.
"Well, there's all this protocol," said Michelle, "I mean, this is like a state visit, so they tell you that you're going to do this, they're going to stand here. Never before do you get this gift, so I'm sort of like OK. ... What am I supposed to do with this gift?" The ex-FLOTUS also laughed off the clear confusion of the moment from which she was saved by her husband. As the video of the moment was played on the talk show, Michelle was seen fumbling with the gift, not knowing where to put it. "No one would come and take the box," she said, "And I'm thinking, 'Do we take the picture with (it)?'" See, he grabbed the box and took it back inside. But everybody cleared out. No staff, no one."
However, when it comes Melania and Jill exchanging gifts on the fateful day next year, people should not surprised if Biden's wife does not receive a gift from the mother-of-one. According to Bustle, outgoing presidents don't traditionally give gifts to their successors. So although there were initial rumors about the chances of Barack Obama handing a present to Trump on the day he is sworn in, there was never an official announcement and he ultimately did not end up gifting Trump anything.
Although there might be an assumption that incoming presidents are showered with lavish gifts, according to the State Department's Protocol Gift Unit, which keeps the record of gifts received by presidents, Obama was given only one gift at his first inauguration, which was a book and a piece of art from Felipe Calderon, the then-president of Mexico. He didn't receive any gifts at all after his second inauguration. Presidential gift-giving was tracked to avoid any appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest.
However, when it comes to the first ladies, rules were not that stringent. Michelle herself had presented a gift to Laura Bush during the inauguration in 2008. However, the etiquette is a little vague as to what follows after the FLOTUS receives the gift. Etiquette apparently says to hold onto a gift and not immediately set it aside, but Michelle had to do so as the arrival of the Trumps was also a major photo opportunity for the press and she had to prepare for that.
Trump has also refused to concede the race to Biden, threatening to challenge the election results. So this could also be the reason only the basic niceties are exchanged between the outgoing and incoming first families on the inauguration day which do not include gifts.