President Donald Trump has revealed the letter that former President Joe Biden left behind for him in the Oval Office before departing the White House, sharing its contents exclusively with Fox News on Wednesday.
The note, which had been placed inside the Resolute Desk, was discovered as Trump signed a series of executive orders. With help from Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy, Trump found the envelope addressed to “47.”
The letter began with a formal salutation: “Dear President Trump.”
“As I take leave of this sacred office, I wish you and your family all the best in the next four years,” Biden wrote. “The American people—and people around the world—look to this house for steadiness in the inevitable storms of history, and my prayer is that the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace for our nation.”
Biden closed with, “May God bless you and guide you as He has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding,” signing it simply as “Joe Biden.” The note was dated January 20, 2025.
Trump came across the letter on Monday after Doocy asked whether Biden had continued the longstanding presidential tradition of leaving a note for his successor.
“He may have. Don’t they leave it in the desk? I don’t know,” Trump said as he searched the Resolute Desk before pulling out the envelope. With a smile, he added, “Thank you, Peter. We might not have found this for years.”
The following day, Trump gave reporters a little more insight into the letter’s tone.
“It was a very nice letter,” he said. “It was a little bit of an inspiring-type letter. Encouraging. Basically saying, ‘Enjoy it, do a good job.’”
Trump noted the significance of the letter and seemed to appreciate the gesture. “It was encouraging, for him, in writing it. I appreciated the letter,” he added.
The tradition of outgoing presidents leaving notes for their successors dates back to 1989 when President Ronald Reagan left a message for George H.W. Bush. Since then, each president—Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump, and Biden—has continued the custom.
Biden found himself in a unique historical position, becoming the first president to write a letter to the same person who had once written one to him. Trump, meanwhile, became the first leader since Grover Cleveland to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
While Trump has now made Biden’s note public, Biden has remained tight-lipped about the contents of the letter Trump left for him in 2021, only calling it “very generous” and choosing to keep it private.