Joseph R. Biden Jr. reprints Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20, 2021 letter to him in Promise Me, America. The Trump Letter To Biden disclosure shows a warm private note that sits sharply beside Trump’s public attacks after the election.
Biden wrote that the message felt “as if there were two Donald Trumps.” He also said the letter was “very generous,” and he printed it in full in the new book.
Oval Office letter to Biden
The original letter was dated Jan. 20, 2021, and a photocopy reviewed by showed an envelope addressed to “46.” The note was written on White House stationery with Trump’s black Sharpie signature. In the letter, Trump told Biden he believed Biden “will be true to yourself and the American people.”
Trump also wrote, “Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats,” followed by, “This will not happen to you because I know how much you love the American people.” Those lines did not include an attack on Biden or a challenge to the election results, which makes the letter stand apart from Trump’s public posture at the time.
Promise Me, America excerpt
In the book, Biden writes that Trump “deeply destabilized our democracy” and “had not offered the traditional meeting between presidents.” Biden says Trump’s tone in the letter sounded “like it was coming from an old friend,” even though Trump had spent the 2020 campaign attacking Biden relentlessly.
Trump called Biden the worst candidate in American history, warned that Biden’s election would unleash violence across U.S. cities, questioned Biden’s mental faculties, and accused Biden of corruption. After Biden won, Trump challenged the results, and that challenge culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
White House response
Trump also refused to attend Biden’s inauguration and still falsely claims the 2020 election was rigged. In response to the new book excerpt, Steven Cheung said Biden should have heeded Trump’s wise words, then said Biden tried to destroy this country and weaponize the justice system against his political enemies. Cheung added that Biden is a disgrace and that America is better off with him no longer as president.
Biden’s excerpt was published on Monday in The Atlantic, and reported on the letter and Biden’s description of it the next day. The book will be released next Tuesday, leaving the public with the letter itself and Biden’s reading of what it reveals about Trump’s private voice versus his public one.
