Biden Says Trump's Post-Riot Letter Showed 'Two Donald Trumps' in New Memoir

When Joe Biden walked into the White House in January 2021, a letter from his predecessor was waiting for him. According to Biden's forthcoming memoir, "Promise Me, America," it was warmer than he expected. Excerpts reported Tuesday show that Biden reprinted the note in full, and that the contrast between the letter and the man who wrote it stayed with him. The New York Times obtained the excerpt, and the book is due out next week.

The letter arrived weeks after the January 6 Capitol riot. Biden writes that it seemed as if there were two Donald Trumps. One, in his telling, had deeply destabilized American democracy and had declined to offer the traditional meeting between outgoing and incoming presidents. The other was the author of a letter that, Biden says, offered best wishes in language that sounded like it came from an old friend.

As Biden reproduces it, Trump wrote: "You now have the opportunity to choose your place in history, and I know you will be true to yourself and the American people." He went on to say that many presidents had simply governed as Republicans or Democrats and, for the most part, had not changed history but had been swept along in its tide. That, he told Biden, would not happen to him, because of how much Biden loved the American people. He also wrote that Biden's strength came from knowing that millions of people were depending on him, and closed with: "May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!"

The Atlantic highlighted a second passage, about the customary White House meeting in 2024 between Biden and the returning president-elect. Biden writes that Trump was immediately chatty and adopted a tone so friendly that Biden wondered whether he was being put on. It bordered on fawning, he says. According to the Atlantic's report, Trump told him: "You know, Joe, if it weren't for politics, I believe we'd be good friends," and added that they would spend all their time golfing together.

Biden's own demeanor at that 2024 meeting drew attention at the time. He had repeatedly described Trump during the campaign as a threat to democracy. Radio host Charlamagne Tha God raised the point on his show, saying he was glad the transfer of power was peaceful but asking what had happened to the talk of a threat to democracy and of fascism. He noted that he had said such things about Trump himself, but argued the words carry more weight coming from a political opponent like Biden. He asked how one goes from calling someone an existential threat to saying "Welcome back."

The White House responded to the memoir excerpts through communications director Steven Cheung, in a statement to Fox News Digital. Cheung said Biden should have heeded the president's wise words, but instead tried to destroy the country and weaponize the justice system against political enemies. He called Biden a disgrace and said America is better off with him out of office.

Theo Wold, who served as a deputy assistant for domestic policy in Trump's first-term White House, also spoke to Fox News Digital. He described the letter as magnanimous and said it impressed on Biden the weight of the job. Wold argued that Biden uses it only to tear Trump down by suggesting insincerity. He also accused Democrats, including what he called a team of leftist ghostwriters behind the book, of wanting to hate Trump regardless of evidence.

Fox News Digital contacted Biden's office for comment and had not received a response. With the book's release days away, the full text of the letter and the accounts of both meetings will soon be available for readers to weigh against the reactions already coming in.