Trump Finds Biden's Parting Letter, Tells Reporters 'We Should Read It Together'

President Donald Trump discovered former President Joe Biden’s parting letter in the Resolute Desk on Monday night following a question from a reporter as he signed executive orders from the Oval Office, prompting a teasing response.

“Wait,” Trump told the reporter while he fiddled with a drawer. “Don’t they leave it in the desk?”

He then spotted the letter, a tradition between outgoing presidents and incoming ones.

“Ooh! Thank you, Peter, it could have been years before we found this thing,” Trump told the reporter.

He waved the white envelope around for the room, joking that “maybe we should all read it together” before adding, “Maybe I’ll read it first and then make that determination.”

Trump looks at a letter left for him by former President Joe Biden.
Trump looks at a letter left for him by former President Joe Biden. Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Trump set the letter aside and returned to his executive orders, remarking that he left Biden a similar note in 2021 on the “unification of our country.”

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Biden confirmed shortly after his inauguration that Trump — despite not attending Biden’s inauguration — had left “a very generous letter,” but he declined to comment on the specifics, calling it “private.”

The contents of former President Barack Obama’s letter to Trump at the start of his first term were swiftly made public back in 2017. Obama told the then-incoming president that “all of us, regardless of party, should hope for expanded prosperity and security during your tenure” and went on to give a couple words of advice, although he noted, “This is a unique office, without a clear blueprint for success, so I don’t know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful.”

Obama emphasized the gravity of the office of the presidency and its impact on Americans and people around the world.

Eight years previously, former President George W. Bush had told Obama that he could look forward to being “inspired by the character and compassion of the people you now lead.” And former President Bill Clinton had told Bush, “The burdens you now shoulder are great but often exaggerated. The sheer joy of doing what you believe is right is inexpressible.”

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