President Obama said he and successor-in-waiting Donald Trump had an "excellent conversation" Thursday as the intense rivals who defined the volatile 2016 election discussed the hand-off of the White House.

Just days after vicious attacks on the campaign trail, the two men spoke well of each other and shook hands for the cameras. Trump, who famously challenged the president's place of birth, called his predecessor "a very good man" following their Oval Office meeting.

After their first face-to-face meeting, President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump pledged to work together following a rancorous election, with the sitting president saying he wants to make Trump and his family "feel welcome as we prepare to make this transition."

Obama and Trump met alone in the Oval Office for 90 minutes, and the president told reporters they had an "excellent" and "wide-ranging" conversation covering domestic and foreign policy issues. Trump said he looked forward to working with Obama in the future and would seek his counsel.

President-elect Donald Trump swooped into Washington, D.C., on Thursday for his first-ever visit to the White House since his historic election, huddling with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office for more than an hour and a half. The brash entrepreneur then headed off for meetings with leaders of the Republican majorities in Congress.