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As a signal, the White House will now operate in the manner recommended by the government in the midst of a pandemic, many of Biden’s staff will continue to work from home in the days and weeks to come.
Officials said they received new computers and phones from the government that were activated at noon on Wednesday, allowing them to conduct official business from living rooms, kitchens and home offices.
Although many individual offices in the West Wing have been affected, the building will not be at full capacity, as it has for much of last year despite the pandemic. The few places that have implemented work-from-home requirements under Trump, like the National Security Council, will continue to have officials work remotely.
That doesn’t include Biden’s top staff like Chief of Staff Ron Klain and press secretary Jen Psaki, who were in the building on Wednesday when Biden first arrived.
But other mid-level and lower-level staff will be working from home, a departure from Trump aides who have mostly continued to come to work without wearing masks.
Psaki said during his press briefing on Wednesday that all staff entering the complex will be required to undergo a Covid test, wear an N95 mask and adhere to social distancing guidelines. Plexiglass barriers were also mounted on desks in the West Wing, which Trump officials had resisted.
“The president has asked us to be role models for the American people as well, and this is also vitally important to us,” she said.
Acting as a role model for the country rather than a minor influence was another sign of Biden’s intention to rekindle the way the White Houses operate.
After four years of thunderous chaos, there were other signs that the volume would be lowered a bit.
After a four-year presidency ruled by turmoil and an active disregard for the phrase “how things are done,” Biden’s entry into the White House ushered in a conscious return to tradition and protocol.
Getting back to “how things are done” was Biden’s calling card. And on his first day as president, large and small, he made sure things were done the way they were.
During her first daily briefing, the White House press secretary opened by calling the Associated Press, a tradition that had been brushed aside, and managed to answer questions without a series of insults – and without any mention. the size of the crowd.
The first phone call from a foreign leader on Biden’s list was planned and announced in advance: Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, perhaps the country’s least controversial ally.
“I didn’t have a chance to dig into this today,” said press secretary Jen Psaki, when asked about the aircraft’s paint job, relegating a problem that once occupied hours of presidential time in the background.
Institutional knowledge
Biden’s collaborators have long sought to tie his institutional knowledge and respect for tradition with an ability to mend the nation’s problems. They paid attention to things like language and optics to project availability for work, even unconsciously.
From the start, his campaign published daily schedules listing Biden’s activities in the established style of a president, even when he went days with nothing. His events were organized in a way that reminded of a president’s official commitments, even though Trump’s official commitments generally resembled campaign events.
Much like the president himself, the team Biden brought with him to the White House has more experience in government than any administration in memory. Led by Klain, who worked in two previous administrations, Biden’s team is made up of former White House alumni of President Barack Obama and other areas of government.
When they arrived in the West Wing on Wednesday morning, many knew their way through the maze of offices and meeting rooms. Unlike Trump’s team, which went without knowing how to turn on the lights in the Cabinet Room for several days, Biden’s aides know how the building operates.
Likewise, do they know how the government generally works – or at least how it worked before Trump arrived.
Officials say one of Biden’s main goals in his early days is to stabilize the country and restore a sense of normalcy after a four-year period of division under Trump. For a country exhausted by the daily turmoil of Trump’s presidency, a more traditional Commander-in-Chief could bring the White House back into the minds of Americans rather than existing as pervasive anxiety.
“Politics must not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path,” he said in his inaugural address on Wednesday.
A different vision
This is not necessarily how Trump supporters see it. They saw the previous president’s willingness to drop presidential standards as a sign that he was abandoning a system that had left too many people behind.
His tweets, which ended this month when Twitter suspended his account, were a balm for those who were fed up with political correctness. His unvarnished press availability gave him a direct glimpse into his thinking, although they were usually riddled with lies.
The management style he employed – which could generously be described as unchecked chaos – ensured that he was the center of attention at all times. He believed that having advisers in front of him usually led to the best possible outcome.
Decorum has become self-defined; While Trump insisted that he be accorded the utmost respect for the office he held, he offered little in return to the democratic system that placed him there.
Ironically, Trump seemed to enjoy the more traditional aspects of his job the most: military critics, marching bands, deference shows.
But he openly admitted that his style was not normal. He called it “modern presidential”.
Biden, at least during his first hours in office, runs for president regularly.
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