Biden reveals letter Trump left him at White House that made it seem 'as if there were two Donald Trumps'
Left 40%
Center 0%
Right 60%
2 left · 0 center · 3 right
What happened
On November 10, 2026, The New York Times published excerpts from former President Joe Biden’s forthcoming memoir, "Promise Me, America," revealing for the first time the full text of the letter Donald Trump left for Biden in the Oval Office on January 20, 2021. In the letter, Trump described working in the Oval Office as a "blessing beyond imagination," urged Biden to consider his "place in history," wrote that he knew how much Biden "love[s] the American people," and closed with, "May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!" Biden’s memoir also reflects on this as an unexpectedly warm gesture from a predecessor he says "deeply destabilized our democracy" and who declined to hold the traditional in-person meeting between outgoing and incoming presidents. In another excerpt highlighted by The Atlantic and right-leaning outlets, Biden recounts their later 2024 White House transition meeting, saying Trump was "chatty" and told him, "if it weren’t for politics, we’d be good friends." According to the established sourcing record, the story was first reported by The New York Times on November 10, 2026, based on Biden’s book and a photocopy of the original letter, with Biden himself as the first on-record source, and it was subsequently picked up by outlets including the Daily Wire and Fox News.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 5 articles
3 of 4 articles cite a named source for the story. It started with unnamed sources; a named source appeared 21 hours later. Most articles credit The New York Times rather than reporting it themselves.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 3 of 4
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Joe Biden
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 3 of 4
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: book excerpt, letter
- Credits another outlet 2 of 4
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: The New York Times
- Unnamed sources 0 of 4
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Nov 9, 15:46 UTC by Washington Examiner, with no named source. First named source 21 hours later, from Daily Wire. First document 21 hours later, from Daily Wire (letter).
- Not counted 1
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The key gap is that left-leaning coverage treats this mainly as a 2021 handover story, while right-leaning outlets portray it as an ongoing, two-act relationship that includes the 2024 transition meeting. The Washington Examiner and Fox News quote Biden’s account of Trump "buttering [him] up" and saying, "if it weren’t for politics, we’d be good friends," but the left-leaning summary focuses only on the original Oval Office letter and its "glimpse of goodwill." That difference shifts the reader’s sense of the memoir from a reflection on one gracious note to a broader, more complicated portrait of repeated cordial interactions between declared political enemies.
A secondary pattern is the contrast in language about Biden’s conduct. Right-leaning stories highlight Steven Cheung calling Biden a "disgrace" who "weaponize[d] the justice system," and quote Theo Wold attacking "leftist ghostwriters," while left-leaning coverage uses neutral, process-focused wording about a "very generous letter" and a memoir excerpt. The result is that one side layers the letter with highly charged accusations, and the other leaves it as a mostly ceremonial, human-interest detail.
None of the coverage answers a basic question: has Trump himself responded to Biden’s decision to publish the private letter and recount their 2024 meeting, and does he still stand by the message he wrote in January 2021?
Bottom line
Right-leaning outlets like the Daily Wire and Fox News turn Biden’s revelation of Trump’s "very generous" 2021 letter into a story about ongoing cordiality, quoting a later 2024 remark that they’d be "good friends," while left-leaning coverage largely leaves readers with a single moment of goodwill at the start of Biden’s term.
The receipts — 3 facts one side's coverage lacks
- The full text of Trump’s 2021 letter includes the line, "This will not happen to you because I know how much you love the American people."
- Trump communications director Steven Cheung issued a statement saying Biden should have heeded Trump’s "wise words" and accusing him of trying to "weaponize the justice system" and calling him a "disgrace."
- Former Trump domestic policy aide Theo Wold is quoted saying Democrats "want to hate Trump" and referring to a "team of leftist ghostwriters" behind Biden’s book.
The Left View
Left-leaning coverage focuses on the revelation of the letter as a rare moment of civility and institutional continuity between two bitter political rivals. The Hill highlights Biden’s description of Trump’s note as a "very generous" letter and frames its publication in the memoir as offering a "glimpse of goodwill" after the divisive 2020 election. The tone emphasizes the human and ceremonial side of the presidency, where adversaries still observe certain norms, rather than the later partisan back-and-forth now surrounding the book’s release.
The Right View
Right-leaning coverage centers on the content of Trump’s letter as evidence of his magnanimity and respect for the office, contrasting it with what they depict as Biden’s later conduct. Outlets such as the Daily Wire and Fox News reproduce the full text to underscore Trump’s complimentary language about Biden’s love for the American people and the weight of the presidency. They highlight Biden’s own contrast between "two Donald Trumps"—a destabilizing public figure and a privately warm correspondent—and argue that Biden uses the story to continue attacking Trump’s character. The Washington Examiner and Fox News also stress Biden’s account of their 2024 transition meeting, quoting Trump’s remark that they would be "good friends" without politics, and then feature Trump ally Steven Cheung’s claim that Biden "weaponize[d] the justice system" against Trump. These outlets additionally place the episode in the context of Biden’s political decline and health, noting he dropped out of the 2024 race after a bad debate and is now limiting book promotion due to an aggressive cancer diagnosis.
Our Take (balanced)
The strongest argument from the left is that publishing the letter illustrates how formal norms and personal decency can occasionally transcend partisan warfare, even between figures who fought a highly contentious election. The text of the note itself, with Trump encouraging Biden to consider his place in history and blessing his family, supports the view that not every interaction between them fit the "pure enmity" narrative.
The strongest argument from the right is that Biden’s own account undercuts some of the absolutist rhetoric he and other Democrats have used about Trump as an existential threat to democracy. They point to Biden describing Trump as warmly supportive in private—via both the 2021 letter and the 2024 "we’d be good friends" comment—while his allies later accuse Trump of uniquely dangerous behavior and Biden’s critics say he "weaponize[d] the justice system" against him.
The central unresolved tension is how to reconcile Trump’s private gestures of goodwill with his public efforts that Biden says "deeply destabilized our democracy," and, on the other side, whether Biden’s stark public warnings about Trump are fully consistent with his own cordial engagement and subsequent use of these episodes in a memoir that still criticizes Trump’s sincerity.
5 sources
- Biden’s book reveals ‘very generous letter’ from Trump during 2021 transition
- WATCH: Biden book details 'very generous' letter from Trump
- Biden was ‘stunned’ after Trump told him they would have been ‘good friends’
- READ IT: Biden Reveals Surprisingly Warm Letter Trump Left Him
- Biden reveals letter Trump left him at White House that made it seem 'as if there were two Donald Trumps'
More stories
The week's bottom lines, in your inbox
One email a week: the five stories that mattered and what they actually mean. Free.