President Donald Trump is not known to have a sweet spot for former President Joe Biden. However, a recently disclosed letter from Trump to Biden, written just days after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, has come to light. It paints a very different picture of the former real estate mogul.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s relationship has been frosty for years, with the public disagreements going back and forth. Further, Donald Trump has been criticizing his political rival immensely, going after him, his family, and giving him nasty nicknames.
In fact, he even removed Biden’s portrait from his Presidential Walk of Fame at the White House, replacing it with an auto pen.
However, The New York Times has disclosed a new letter Trump wrote to Biden. It was written before Donald left the White House in January 2021, as the president then left a personal letter.
Why does it make headlines? Well, it had a very different tone from his public remarks.
The letter, which Biden discovered inside the Oval Office’s famous Resolute Desk after taking office, contained several unexpectedly warm words for the incoming president.
The letter is included in Biden’s upcoming book, Promise Me, America, scheduled for release on November 17. Shortly after becoming president in 2021, Biden told reporters that Trump had left him a “very generous letter”, but he chose not to reveal what it said at the time.
Donald Trump’s letter to Joe Biden disclosed in new book
A source familiar with Biden’s memoir has now confirmed details of the handwritten note, written in black Sharpie. The New York Times first reported its contents ahead of the book’s publication.
Addressed “Dear Joe” and signed “Sincerely, Donald,” the letter was left in an envelope marked “To ‘46,’” referring to Biden being the 46th president of the United States.
The letter is dated January 20, 2021, and includes some particularly encouraging words from Trump.
“You now have the opportunity to choose your place in history, and I know you will be true to yourself and the American people,” Trump wrote, per The New York Times.
“Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats,” he continued. “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.”
White House attacks Joe Biden after letter is disclosed
The letter likely surprised both Trump and Biden supporters, especially since Donald repeatedly attacked Biden during the campaign and refused to accept his election defeat.
His supporters later stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, after Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. Trump also broke with presidential tradition by refusing to attend Biden’s inauguration, which took place just two weeks after the Capitol attack.
The White House has confirmed the letter’s authenticity to NewsNation. However, Communications Director Steven Cheung has a very different interpretation.
“Joe Biden should have heeded the President’s wise words, but instead he tried to destroy this country and weaponize the justice system against his political enemies. Biden is a disgrace, and America is better off with him no longer as president,” Cheung said in a statement, per The Hill.
Joe Biden wrote that Donald Trump had “destabilized our democracy”
Biden also addresses the apparent contradiction in his upcoming memoir, acknowledging that Trump’s private message seemed very different from how he treated him publicly.
And that is also something people onlone reacted to.
“Okay no I’m sorry. There is no chance that Donald Trump actually composed that letter, let alone wrote it out himself with a sharpie. Zero chance. Did not happen,” one user wrote on X.
A second added, “That’s a very nice letter given the circumstances. If actually wrote it-or even just signed off on it-he gets an A+ for participation on that letter,” while a third said, “This letter just further proves what a complete and utter hypocrite trump really is.”
A fourth claimed, “I think President Trump truly felt bad for President Biden, he knew Biden was not running things at the White House and was dealing with declining mental issues. You could see at their debate that President Trump knew Joe was not well.”
In the book, the former president describes the experience as “as if there were two Donald Trumps.”
While Trump may have left him an encouraging personal note, Biden didn’t quite have a soft spot for his predecessor. In his book, he wrote that he had “deeply destabilized our democracy” and refused to meet with him before leaving office.
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