Biden and Trump’s security advisers met to pass the ceremonial baton, according to Reuters

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top advisers to U.S. President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump put aside their differences – particularly – on national security issues on Tuesday. Focused on the symbolic “passing of the torch”.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, passed the baton to US Congressman Mike Waltz for the same job since 2001 at a Washington ceremony at the nonpartisan United States Institute of Peace.

The two men have typically appeared in the media defending their superiors’ opposing views on Ukraine, the Middle East and China.

On Tuesday, Waltz and Sullivan politely sought consensus on a panel designed to design the US’s energy continuum.

“It’s a very weird and slightly awkward version of the ‘love game,’ you know the old game where you write your answer, and the person writes the answer, and you see how similar they are,” Sullivan said.

The event offered a preview of what could happen when Trump is inaugurated as president on Monday. This peaceful transfer of power comes four years after Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, a hallmark of American democracy that has lasted for more than two centuries.

At this point, the two sides are talking. Sullivan, at Biden’s request, privately informed Waltz about the current administration’s policy around the world, despite Trump’s aides regularly saying that the new team would leave him.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Biden’s envoy, Brett McGurk, are working together this week to broker a cease-fire for people held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

When asked Tuesday about key challenges facing the new administration, Waltz and Sullivan both pointed to the California wildfires and China.

Sullivan highlighted hostage-taking and artificial intelligence as key issues.

Waltz pointed to the US border with Mexico, an area where Trump tore up Biden’s approach.

But the Biden administration has been credited with strengthening ties between America’s allies in Asia.

For the conversation between the two men and the hope for peace in the Middle East, Walt paints a picture of the grim decisions that await him in his new job.

“There is evil.” “Sometimes you just have to put bombs on foreheads.”