Former President Joe Biden’s upcoming memoir, “Promise Me, America,” reveals a letter Donald Trump left him at the White House in January 2021 that Biden himself describes as making it seem “as if there were two Donald Trumps,” according to an excerpt obtained by The New York Times.
The book is set for release next week. In it, Biden draws a contrast between the public Trump he says “deeply destabilized our democracy” and skipped the traditional incoming-president meeting, and the private Trump whose letter offered “best wishes in warm language that sounded like it was coming from an old friend.”
According to Biden’s account, the letter read in part: “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.”
“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!”
The Atlantic separately published a passage from the book describing Biden’s customary 2024 White House meeting with Trump as the incoming president. Biden wrote that Trump was “immediately chatty” and struck a tone “so friendly that I thought he might be putting me on. It bordered on fawning.”
Biden recounts Trump telling him, “You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends. Yes, if it weren’t for politics, we’d spend all our time golfing together.”
A Recurring Contradiction
The friendliness Biden describes sits uneasily alongside his own repeated public warnings, made while running for reelection, that Trump posed “a threat to democracy.” Radio host Charlamagne Tha God pressed on that contradiction at the time of the 2024 meeting, asking on his show: “I just don’t understand the White House visit. Now granted, you know, I’m glad it’s a peaceful transition of power, but what happened to the ‘threat of democracy’ talk? What happened to the ‘fascist’ talk?”
Charlamagne added: “I’m just trying to figure out, how do you go from ‘He’s an existential threat to democracy’ to ‘Welcome back?'”
Reaction From Trump World
White House communications director Steven Cheung responded to the memoir excerpts in a statement to Fox News Digital: “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. Biden is a disgrace, and America is better off with him no longer as president.”
Theo Wold, a former White House deputy assistant for domestic policy during Trump’s first term, told Fox News Digital: “This is another example of the ‘when-they-go-low-we-go-high’ people doing exactly the opposite. President Trump left a magnanimous letter to Biden, impressing upon him the weight of the job and the responsibility every president bears to the American people. And Biden uses it only to tear down Trump, suggesting insincerity. No. Democrats — including the team of leftist ghostwriters that penned this book for Biden — want to hate Trump, and so they will, regardless of any evidence showing their hatred is unfounded.”
Biden’s office had not responded to a request for comment at the time of the original report.
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