Was this night at the White House Correspondents Dinner in April, 2011 the one where Donald Trump, pictured with Melania, decided to run for the White House? Photo / AP
Was this night at the White House Correspondents Dinner in April, 2011 the one where Donald Trump, pictured with Melania, decided to run for the White House? Photo / AP
Opinion by Barry Soper
Barry Soper is Newstalk ZB's senior political correspondent
It's hard to imagine a more difficult meeting, Barak Obama extending his hand to Donald Trump who doesn't like shaking hands for a start because of the possibility of infection.
But he's prepared to do it today on the road to making America great again while at the same time having a look at the house he'll be living in for the next four years.
For him there won't be enough gold gilt, the columns at the front would look nice with a lick of 24 karat, he'll no doubt be thinking. And there's room on the roof to erect a Trump sign, the Trump White House has a ring to it.
Seriously though the meeting between the two at the first family's home will be awkward with a capital A.
Earlier this week Obama was telling us Trump was the most unqualified person to be seeking the office while Trump was describing him as incompetent. Obama could break the ice though by giving Trump a new cell phone so he can get back to tweeting, well he did say this week that if Trump's advisers can't trust him to tweet, how could the country trust him with the nuclear codes?
President Barack Obama, jokes about Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington, Saturday, April 30, 2011. Photo / AP
Once he gets the codes he could in fact use them as his new password to ensure he doesn't forget them.
As the pair sit in the Oval Office Trump will be thinking back to that Foreign Correspondents' White House dinner where he barely cracked a smile as Obama took the proverbial.
Obama opened with the Hulk Hogan theme "Real American" with his birth certificate, released just a few days before in Hawaii, pulsating on the screen.
Later Trump sat with a stony face, framed by the rigid, blow dried confection, as a comedian poked the borax that as the owner of the USA Beauty Pageant it would at least streamline the selection process for his running mate and that he has a great relationship with the Blacks who were in fact a white family.
It was after that dinner, when he didn't stick around to socialise, that it's said he decided to stand for President to get revenge and that starts today.
Meanwhile Michelle Obama will be meeting the First Lady elect Melania Trump who'll more than likely offer her a job as a speech writer.
As she tours the vege garden, she'll be picturing the paving around an in ground swimming pool. Well Barak said earlier this week that the Trumps will be digging up the garden, and insisted he wasn't joking.
There'll be a visit to the White House situation room where Hillary Clinton was pictured as they were taking out Osama bin Laden. Given his reality television experience, Trump should have little trouble role playing, showing how he'd deal with a crisis.
Having gritted his veneers during the White House torture his motorcade will then take him to meet with another arch critic who at least belongs to the same party, Speaker Paul Ryan.
The youthful Speaker said after the election that Trump heard voices that others weren't hearing. Certainly the most highly ranked Republican didn't hear them as he deserted Trump and invited other party members to do the same. Trump called him a feckless leader.
The President elect will then turn his attention to the four thousand appointments that'll have to be made to get his administration up and running.
Get the cameras rolling; the Celebrity Apprentice host is in the chair!
Barry Soper travelled to the United States courtesy of Air New Zealand.
