Know How Much You Love the American People,’ Trump Told Biden in 2021 Letter

There's nothing I find more infuriating than when the Dark Lord does not act like the Dark Lord.

Know How Much You Love the American People,’ Trump Told Biden in 2021 Letter

The letter, which former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. details in a new book, is remarkable for a warm tone starkly at odds with his predecessor’s public comments.

By Tyler Pager, NY Times

Nov. 10, 2026

In his first week in office, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told reporters that his immediate predecessor, Donald J. Trump, had left him a “very generous letter” in the Oval Office. Since then, Mr. Biden has refused to discuss the contents.

But in his new book, “Promise Me, America,” Mr. Biden reprints the letter in full, according to an excerpt obtained by The New York Times. The Times also reviewed a photocopy of the original letter, which was dated Jan. 20, 2021, and left in an envelope addressed “To ‘46’” — a reference to Mr. Biden’s status as the 46th president.

The letter, written on White House stationery with Mr. Trump’s signature black Sharpie, is a remarkable document for how discordant it is with Mr. Trump’s public comments about Mr. Biden and the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Trump did not criticize Mr. Biden or challenge the results of the election. Instead, he wrote almost poetically about his experience working in the White House and how he believed that Mr. Biden “will be true to yourself and the American people.”

“Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats,” Mr. Trump wrote. “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.”

In his book, which will be released next Tuesday, Mr. Biden, 83, writes that it was “as if there were two Donald Trumps.” He says Mr. Trump “deeply destabilized our democracy” and had “not offered the traditional meeting between presidents.”

“But here he was, offering his best wishes in warm language that sounded like it was coming from an old friend,” Mr. Biden writes.

During the 2020 campaign, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Biden relentlessly. He called him “the worst candidate” in American history, warned that his election would unleash violence across U.S. cities, questioned his mental faculties and accused him of corruption. After Mr. Biden won the election, Mr. Trump challenged the results, culminating in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Afterward, he refused to attend Mr. Biden’s inauguration.

To this day, Mr. Trump still falsely claims the 2020 election was rigged and blames Mr. Biden for an array of problems, a note the White House struck again on Tuesday.

“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,” Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said in a statement. “Biden is a disgrace, and America is better off with him no longer as president.”

In an excerpt from his book published on Monday in The Atlantic, Mr. Biden recounts the “traditional meeting” he held with Mr. Trump after his 2024 election win. He described a similar version of Mr. Trump that “surprised me by adopting a tone so friendly that I thought he might be putting me on.”

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“You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,” Mr. Trump told him, according to the book.

For Mr. Biden, the book comes at a complicated moment. Many Democrats are eager to move past him, still frustrated by his decision to run for a second term and how it paved the way for Mr. Trump to return to the White House.

After leaving office, Mr. Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that spread to his bones. He said on Sunday that his cancer treatment would limit the number of public appearances he would make to promote the book.

“Some days are better than others. It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down,” Mr. Biden wrote on social media. “What that means is, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped.”

Hunter Biden, the former president’s son, said in an interview over the summer that his father’s condition was worsening and causing him pain.

The former president has made few public appearances since leaving the White House. He has been spotted on Amtrak trains between Delaware and Washington, attended events at the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware and given select speeches, including one on Social Security in Chicago and one for the South Dakota Democratic Party.

Here is the full text of Mr. Trump’s letter, as rendered in the photocopy viewed by The Times:

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

Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.