Donald Trump was "surprised" but "very appreciative" to hear President Joe Biden praise the former administration for its role in developing
COVID-19 vaccines and highlighting that the 45th president had received a booster shot.
Trump then reiterated that he was "a little bit surprised", adding that he thinks Biden "did something very good".
"You know, it has to be a process of healing in this country, and that will help a lot", the former US president said.
Referring to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, Trump said that "this is a great thing that we all did" and that although he "may have been the vehicle, […] we all did this together".
He also claimed that it is "tone" and "trust", not mandates, which are key factors in getting Americans vaccinated.
"If you have the mandate, the mandate will destroy people's lives — it destroys people's lives, just as the vaccine saves people. I think that it's really a question of tone. It's a question of trust, and hopefully, the people that have had COVID, hopefully they will be given credit for that", Trump said.
The remarks follow Biden's speech at the White House on Tuesday, in which he focused on updates to the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic in light of the spread of the new Omicron variant, which currently makes up over 73% of new infections across the US, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
During the speech, POTUS gave kudos to the Trump administration for its efforts to develop COVID vaccines before he assumed office in January 2021.
Separately, he mentioned that he received his COVID vaccine booster shot "as soon as they were available", adding, "and just the other day, former President Trump announced he had gotten his booster shot. [It] maybe one of the few things he and I agree on".
Biden spoke after Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Dallas late last week that he had received a coronavirus vaccine booster jab, followed by booing and jeering from the audience.
Under then-US President Trump, the country's Food and Drug Administration approved emergency use authorisations for the Pfizer/BioNTech and
Moderna COVID vaccines in 2020.
In December of that year, Trump inked an executive order stipulating that all Americans should gain access to the vaccines before the US government could start to aid other countries.