Donald Trump has a very distinctive way of talking and writing.
There are the social media posts – crammed with capital letters and jabs against ‘total losers’ – or his long, sometimes rambling speeches.
Yet neither quite applies to a letter Trump left Joe Biden when he departed the White House after losing the 2020 US presidential election.
Biden said at the time that his political foe had left him a ‘very generous letter’ when he assumed office, but declined to reveal its content.
Now Biden is reprinting the letter for his upcoming memoir Promise Me, America, according to The New York Times.
The note, scribbled in Sharpie on White House stationery, was left in an envelope addressed to ’46’, otherwise known as Biden, the 46th president.
‘Coming to work every day in the Oval Office is a blessing beyond imagination,’ Trump’s letter, dated January 20, 2021, began.
‘History resounds from every wall, every statue, every beautiful painting, and every corner of this magical place.
‘Each staircase, hallway and door leads to yet another door and memory, another inflection point in the glorious story of America.’
During the election campaign, Trump called Biden, among other things, ‘sleepy’, ‘a loser’, ‘very stupid’, ‘slow’, ‘crooked’, and ‘impaired’.
Trump claimed the election was stolen and, on January 6, 2021, saw his comments curdle into an attempted insurrection by his supporters.
He later ditched Biden’s swearing-in ceremony, instead jetting from the White House straight to Palm Beach, Florida.
In his letter, however, Trump, then 74, urged Biden to ‘take a moment’ to reflect on history and be ‘true’ to himself and the American people.
‘Your strength, your deepest reservoir of energy, comes from the knowledge that millions upon millions of people are depending on you,’ he wrote.
‘Their ambitions and aspirations are the reason you are here, with so many counting on your success.
‘May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!’
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, told Metro that Biden should have followed Trump’s ‘wise words’.
‘But instead he tried to destroy this country and weaponise the justice system against his political enemies,’ Cheung said.
‘Biden is a disgrace, and America is better off with him no longer as president.’
Letter Trump left to Biden in full
Dear Joe,
Coming to work every day in the Oval Office is a blessing beyond imagination. History resounds from every wall, every statue, every beautiful painting and every corner of this magical place. Each staircase, hallway and door leads to yet another door and memory, another inflection point in the glorious story of America.
I hope you take a moment every single day to take stock of where you are and the people who came before you, the titans who shaped the course of human events. You now have the opportunity to choose your place in history and I know you will be true to yourself and the American people.
Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats. Largely, they did not change history, they were just swept along in its relentless tide. This will not happen to you because I know how much you love the American people.
Not only are you joined by the past but you carry the hopes and dreams of the entire nation on your shoulders. The gravity of that fact never leaves you, it is the anchor that grounds every decision you make.
Your strength, your deepest reservoir of energy, comes from the knowledge that millions upon millions of people are depending on you. Their ambitions and aspirations are the reason you are here, with so many counting on your success.
May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!
Sincerely,
Donald
Trump would surprise Biden once again in 2024, after he was voted back into the White House.
In an excerpt from his book published in The Atlantic, Biden said Trump’s private words left him feeling ‘as if there were two Donald Trumps’.
During a ‘traditional meeting’ in the Oval Office after his 2024 loss, Biden’s predecessor-turned-successor surprised him ‘by adopting a tone so friendly that I thought he might be putting me on’.
‘You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,’ Trump told him, according to the book.
‘Yes, if it weren’t for politics, we’d spend all our time golfing together.’
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