Former President Joe Biden wished President Donald Trump and his family “all the best in the next four years,” Fox News reported.
“Dear President Trump, As I take leave of this sacred office I wish you and your family all the best in the next four years,” the letter Biden left Trump reads, according to the outlet. “The American people - and people around the world - look to this house for steadiness in the inevitable storms of history, and my prayer is that in the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace for our nation. May God bless you and guide you as He has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding. Joe Biden 1-20-25”
On Monday night, Trump found the letter in the Resolute Desk as he was signing executive orders in front of reporters.
“Wait,” Trump said after a reporter asked about the letter. “Don’t they leave it in the desk?
“Ooh! Thank you, Peter, it could have been years before we found this thing,” he said after he located the document.
Trump held up the white envelope and joked that “maybe we should all read it together,” before saying that he would read it first and “then make that determination.”
Trump then said he had left Biden a letter in 2021 remarking on the “unification of the country.”
Biden confirmed that in 2021, telling reporters that Trump had left him a “very generous letter,” but that he wouldn’t talk about it because it was “private.”
The tradition of outgoing presidents leaving a note for incoming presidents began in 1989 when former President Ronald Reagan left a note for his successor George H. W. Bush.
In 2017, former President Barack Obama left a note for Trump that “all of us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure.”
In 2009, former President George W. Bush wrote to Obama that he would look forward to being “inspired by the character and compassion of the people you now lead.”
Former President Bill Clinton wrote to Bush: “The burdens you now shoulder are great but often exaggerated. The sheer joy of doing what you believe is right is inexpressible.”