Here's How Biden's White House Is Already Different From Trump's
We may just be days away from Joe Biden's first monthiversary as POTUS, but signs already point to a very different White House from the one he took over from his predecessor after the inauguration on January 20, and we're not just talking about new carpets, drapes, artwork, and chairs in the Oval Office. CNN says it didn't take long for Biden to settle down and hit the ground running — and that the transition from private citizen to commander-in-chief has "come more naturally" than the very abrupt change of circumstances experienced by his predecessors.
While Donald Trump was known for his fondness for "Executive Time" (aka staying in the residence between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., reading papers and phoning aides, friends, and members of Congress, per Axios), CNN says Biden is very much a creature of habit. He begins his morning having coffee with Dr. Jill, and from there, he heads down to the Oval Office to start his day, which kicks off at 9 a.m. What is not set in stone appears to be the timing for the President's Daily Brief, a regularly scheduled classified discussion between Biden, VP Kamala Harris, and a group of intelligence professionals (via Fact Base).
President Biden has been known to drop by offices unannounced
Those around President Joe Biden say that he is very much a people person and that he likes to chat because he is very much an extrovert. "He likes to feed off other people and likes to win over rooms and people with his thinking and logic and policies and proposals and so part of the way you do that is you give feedback and get feedback by talking to people," a former aide tells Politico. So it shouldn't come as a surprise to know that he has dropped by other offices unannounced, to ask staffers about what they might be working on or to ask questions about his COVID-19 relief plan (via CNN).
If the president cannot meet with a staffer or a cabinet member in person, television screens are used to hold conference calls. Even then, "Biden will get up and walk around the West Wing a fair amount, probably because he's so familiar with it. He's sat in the West Wing for eight years and he knows what the energy of the place is like," another former aide tells Politico.
Biden schedule a "returning to normal": White House expert
Biden's day ends just before 7 p.m., and he leaves carrying binders or folders at night, which could indicate that quitting time doesn't mean the day is over.
On the weekends, Biden is all about going to public mass, and he worships at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown. While he hasn't ventured out much since his "controversial" trip to a popular bagel shop the week of his inauguration, an aide told CNN that more outings will be in the cards once the pandemic is over.
Biden's schedule is what Terry Sullivan, executive director of the White House Transition Project, calls a "returning to normal" of the president's time. "We know when Trump spent all this time writing tweets and scheduling his own meetings he was frittering away his opportunities to lead ... If you're Biden, you're asking yourself 'do I really want to spend time trying to line up meetings or do I want to lead on legislation and national security?' The answer to that is pretty obvious," Sullivan tells Politico.