Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden received a message from him
His last official act: Donald Trump (photo) wrote a letter to his successor, US President Joe Biden.
© Shutterstock.com / NumenaStudios
Donald Trump left a note for his successor, US President Joe Biden, before leaving Washington for Palm Beach.
When signing his first presidential ordinances after being sworn in on Wednesday, Joe Biden, 78, confirmed that former President Donald Trump, 74, had left him a note on the Oval Office desk before he left that morning. "The President wrote a very generous letter," Biden told reporters in the Oval Office. "Because he was private, I won't talk about it until I talk to him. But he was generous."
The new White House press secretary Jen Psaki later also confirmed to reporters that Biden would keep the letter private for the time being, describing the note as "gracious". Trump spokesman Judd Deere had previously told reporters that Trump left a letter for Biden in the White House before leaving the capital for West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday morning. As "People" reports, the spokesman did not disclose the content of the letter.
A tradition
Trump did not break with this tradition, although he did not want to accept the election result for a long time. Leaving a note for the new President dates back to 1989, when US President (1981-1989) Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, Republican) succeeded (1989-1993) George H.W. Bush (1924-2018, Republican) left a drawing. The cartoon showed an elephant covered in turkeys with the comment: "Don't let the turkeys get you down." The elephant is the Republicans' mascot.