OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
Donald Trump’s letter to biographer Joe Biden was ‘very long’ and had ‘lovely’ writing, according to Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary.
During an appearance on actor Rob Lowe’s podcast, Psaki discussed the private letter left on the Resolute Desk by outgoing President Trump during a contentious transition of power.
President Biden hasn’t divulged details about the letter himself, only describing it as ‘generous’. However, Psaki said that as soon as he walked into the Oval Office, he read it.
‘On my first day before I did my first briefing, I was in the Oval Office, talking with him about the briefing and anything he wanted me to convey or what I expected or whatever,’ Psaki recalled during her appearance on Rob Lowe’s podcast, Literally! with Rob Lowe.
‘And I said, “You know, I think you’re going to be asked about the letter that the former president left you” and he said, “Oh, did he leave me a letter?”
‘And I was like, am I telling him he was left a letter? I don’t know, OK?
‘So I said, I think so. I think, I think that’s what happened.
‘He kind of looked around for the letter and read the letter while I was sitting there, which was just kind of a remarkable moment. No, he didn’t read aloud. He read it to himself.
‘And he is such a classy guy, whether people agree with his politics or not, that he didn’t even convey it to us in that moment of what the letter said, he kind of read the letter consumed in himself.’
As Psaki noted, the letter was ‘very long in the script’ and had ‘lovely’ handwriting, though she couldn’t read its content.
When Biden briefly met with reporters to sign executive orders in 2021, he admitted Trump had ‘wrote a very generous letter,’ but he added ‘because it was private, I won’t talk about it until I talk to him. But it was generous.’
Without President Trump’s permission, he said he would not disclose the letter’s contents.
A few months after, Trump said that he did write a letter that was a ‘couple of pages long.’ He added that it was ‘from the heart because I want to see him do well.’
As Trump explained to Lisa Boothe for her podcast, he wrote Biden the note and ‘basically I wished him luck’ before going on to criticize Biden’s border control policies.
An outgoing president usually leaves a letter for their successor. Given that Trump and Biden had a contentious election, many wondered if Trump would follow this tradition.
Since Trump has spent months claiming widespread election fraud, it is not known if anything contained in the letter will validate Biden’s presidency.
Since Ronald Reagan left a cartoon with the message, “Don’t let the turkeys get you down,” for his successor George H.W. Bush in 1989, the tradition has endured.
The Republican Bush had to write to his successor Bill Clinton four years later, after losing the election to him.
A gracious letter was written by Bush in one of his last acts as president, despite his successor being an opponent.
In his note, perhaps the most well-known part is the opening ‘Dear Bill’ and the following sentence: ‘Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.’
Since then, all letters up to Barack Obama’s slightly less friendly letter are publicly accessible.
Additionally, Trump’s letter will eventually become public, since all notes outgoing presidents leave for their successors will eventually be archived under The Presidential Records Act, which is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Earlier this month during an interview with Maria Bartiromo for Fox Business, Trump had an ominous message about who is running the country.
The interview began with Bartiromo asking, “The other day Hillary Clinton said that if you win again, it is the end of democracy. Will this be a rematch?”
“Oh, I have no idea. I hope so. I mean, I’d like that,” Trump said. “But Look, the woman is crooked as can be. She cheated in the election. They spied on my campaign.”
“Remember I put out that little statement, they’re spying on my campaign, and all hell broke out. You know why it broke out? Because they knew I was right. They knew I was right. And all of these things that happened, let’s see what happens now. Let’s see what happens to Hunter, let’s see what happens to all of it.”
The interview then turned to the current president.
“Just today (Biden) called Kamala Harris president again. Do you think someone else is directing him?” Bartiromo querried.
“Well, I never called Mike Pence president. I’ll tell you, I can’t imagine what’s going on. It’s hard to believe,” Trump answered.
“Who runs the country?” Bartiromo asked.
“Well, think of it, it was so obvious in this case because 450,000 — he was incensed. He was very upset by that question, asked by a very good reporter, actually.
“But he was very angry at that question. Like, how dare you, what a stupid question, of course. The next morning he was saying how, yeah, this is something that we think is excellent,” Trump responded.
“That really means in the truest sense that he is not running this country, because there’s no way you go from indignation to, oh, that’s wonderful.”
Source: The Republic Brief