Biden Reveals Stunning Private Letter from Trump

Donald Trump spent months attacking Joe Biden, refusing to accept his 2020 election defeat and ultimately skipping his successor’s inauguration. But behind closed doors, the outgoing president left Biden something almost nobody would have expected: a remarkably warm letter filled with praise, encouragement and wishes for his success.

Now, more than five years later, Biden is revealing what Trump wrote in a surprising passage from his upcoming memoir, Promise Me, America, scheduled for release November 17.

The letter, dated January 20, 2021, was left in the Oval Office as Trump departed Washington for Florida, breaking with the longstanding tradition of attending his successor’s inauguration.

According to excerpts reported by The New York Times, Trump told Biden he had an opportunity to make history and expressed confidence in his dedication to the American people. He also encouraged the incoming president to recognize the millions of Americans counting on his leadership.

What makes the message so extraordinary is what Trump didn’t say. There were no personal insults, no accusations of election fraud and no attempt to undermine Biden’s legitimacy as president.

Instead, the tone was so unexpectedly gracious that Biden wondered how the man who had privately offered such encouragement could be the same political rival who had spent months attacking him.

In his memoir, Biden describes feeling as though there were “two Donald Trumps.”

The contrast was especially striking given the circumstances surrounding the transition. Just two weeks before Biden took office, a mob of Trump supporters had stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress gathered to certify the election results. Trump continued making false claims about his defeat, even as his administration prepared to leave Washington.

Biden writes that Trump’s actions had damaged American democracy, making the sudden display of personal warmth all the more difficult to understand.

And the contradictions apparently didn’t end there.

Biden recounts another unexpectedly friendly encounter in November 2024, when he welcomed Trump back to the White House following the Republican’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Unlike Trump four years earlier, Biden followed the tradition of inviting the president-elect to the Oval Office for a transition meeting.

According to Biden, Trump was unusually complimentary, suggesting the two men might have developed a genuine friendship if they hadn’t become political opponents.

Trump even reportedly imagined the former rivals spending their time playing golf together.

Biden says he was so surprised by the friendly conversation that he initially wondered whether Trump was being sincere. The meeting, originally scheduled for roughly 30 minutes, reportedly lasted nearly two hours.

But the warmth behind closed doors stood in sharp contrast to the political battles that followed.

In another excerpt from his memoir, published by The Atlantic on Monday, Biden delivers a blistering assessment of Trump’s return to power, accusing his successor of weakening democratic institutions, reversing major policies and excusing those involved in the January 6 Capitol attack.

The former president also condemns Trump’s sweeping pardons of January 6 defendants, arguing that Americans must never forget what happened at the Capitol.

The White House has responded sharply to the memoir’s revelations.

Trump communications director Steven Cheung criticized Biden in a statement to The Daily Beast, accusing the former president of damaging the country and misusing the justice system against political opponents. The statement offered little of the warmth reflected in Trump’s private letter.

The revelations arrive as Biden, 83, prepares to release his account of his four years in office while undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.

On Sunday, November 8, Biden acknowledged that his treatment would limit the number of public appearances he could make to promote the book. He emphasized that his doctors remained encouraged by his response to treatment and expressed hope that readers would judge his presidency through the memoir itself.

Ultimately, the letter raises an intriguing question about one of the most bitter presidential rivalries in modern American politics.

How could Trump privately express such confidence in Biden while publicly questioning his legitimacy and attacking his leadership?

For Biden, the newly disclosed message offers a glimpse of a side of Trump that Americans rarely saw during their years of bitter political warfare.