Trump leaves a ‘very generous’ letter to Biden [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Prior to leaving the White House, President Donald Trump wrote a departing letter to President Joe Biden.
• The contents of the letter were not disclosed as Biden said that he would wait until he gets to talk with Trump.
• The custom of letter-writing started during the presidency of outgoing President Ronald Reagan.

Despite not attending President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, President Donald Trump made one participation as part of the presidential tradition ━ giving a letter to his successor before leaving the White House.

Trump’s spokesman Judd Deere revealed on Wednesday that the outgoing president left a written letter to Biden which was placed in the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk. The content of the letter, though, was not disclosed in public.

During his first conversation with reporters from The Oval Office on Wednesday evening, Biden said that he would also keep mum about the letter until he gets in touch with his predecessor.

“The president wrote a very generous letter,” Biden said. “Because it was private, I will not talk about it until I talk to him, but it was generous.”

Trump has skipped other presidential traditions on the transition of the presidency, primarily being absent in Biden’s inauguration as he opted to go straight to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, after a farewell address at Joint Base Andrews.

The practice of letter-writing between outgoing and incoming presidents is relatively a recent custom. It was kickstarted by former President Ronald Reagan, who wrote a letter to former President George H.W. Bush (his former vice president).

The letter was penned in a stationary with an aphorism that says: “Don’t let the turkeys get you down.”

Another famous letter was the one written by Bush to former president Bill Clinton in 1993, after a hard-fought campaign on both candidates.

Bush then wrote: “Your success is now our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.” He made a conciliatory approach and called Clinton “Our President,” and he underlined it to emphasize his sincerity. 

Trump also got a letter from former President Barack Obama during his arrival to the White House. Obama offered his well-wishes and urged him to leave the “instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”

Source: Politico