Donald Trump ‘left a generous letter for Joe Biden’ … but what did it say?
Joe Biden confirms Donald Trump upheld tradition by leaving him a letter — but the President keeps contents secret.
Donald Trump left a “very generous” letter to his successor Joe Biden before leaving the White House, the President has confirmed.
However Mr Biden says he’ll keep the contents of the letter private until he has spoken with the former president.
Speakng to reporters from behind Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, Mr Biden said:“The President wrote a very generous letter.
“Because it was private I will not talk about it until I talk to him.”
Mr Trump, who refused to accept his defeat for more than two months, never congratulated Mr Biden on his victory and refused to invite him to the White House, as is traditional for outgoing presidents.
Trump spokesman Judd Deere confirmed minutes after the outgoing president’s departure from the White House that he had indeed followed the tradition of departing presidents by leaving a letter to welcome the new president to the Oval Office.
“We are just temporary occupants of this office,” Barack Obama wrote in his own note to Trump four years ago, left in the Oval Office in line with presidential tradition.
“That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions … that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them,” he added.
The letter touted as one of the classiest left by a president was written by Republican George HW Bush to Bill Clinton, who had made Bush a one-term president after defeating him in the 1992 election.
The letter, which Bush left as he departed the White House in 1993, recalled his “sense of wonder and respect” as he walked in to the Oval Office four years earlier.
“There will be very tough times … just don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course,” Bush wrote.
“You will be our president when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you. Good luck,” he told his opponent.
— AFP
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