Biden's memoir reprints Trump's warm 2021 letter and attacks his Capitol riot record

A letter at odds with Trump's public rhetoric

Joe Biden's memoir "Promise Me, America" reprints in full a letter Donald Trump left for him in the Oval Office on 20 January 2021, the day Trump left office. The New York Times obtained an excerpt from the book and reviewed a photocopy of the original, written on White House stationery and signed in Trump's black Sharpie. The envelope was addressed 'To 46', a reference to Biden as the 46th president. The warm tone contrasts sharply with Trump's public attacks on Biden and his challenge to the 2020 result, and the letter neither criticizes Biden nor disputes the vote. In the letter Trump reflects on the privilege of working in the Oval Office and on the history present in every corner of the White House. He sets ordinary presidents apart from the man who was about to succeed him, writing:

“Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats.”

Biden had told reporters in his first week in office that Trump left him a 'very generous letter', yet he refused to discuss its contents in the years that followed.

Biden on the Capitol riot and the pardons

Biden writes that Trump's conduct during the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 should haunt him until he dies. He accuses Trump of looking away while police officers were assaulted that day, and then presenting himself as a friend of law enforcement. The excerpts also say Biden views Trump and his allies as seeking to break down institutions and stoke hatred. After returning to the White House in 2025, Trump pardoned more than 1,000 people convicted over the riot. Reports differ on the number of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members whose sentences were reduced: Telegraaf puts it at twelve, while 7sur7 says about ten. Biden writes that the people who attacked officers that day deserved prison terms, not clemency. Biden is 83, according to the New York Times.

A meeting after the 2024 election

Biden describes a long conversation with Trump after Trump's 2024 election victory. According to excerpts of the memoir, Trump said that without politics the two of them would be good friends, called Biden's job creation record 'exceptional', and said he was relieved not to have to run against him. Biden says he was too stunned to respond and cut short the compliments to return to the business at hand. The book describes Trump as having not offered the traditional meeting between presidents, and Biden writes that it felt as if there were two Donald Trumps. In the excerpt Biden describes the moment this way:

“But here he was, offering his best wishes in warm language that sounded like it was coming from an old friend.”

Reaction and release

A White House spokesperson responded to Biden's remarks by calling him the worst president in American history, and said what Biden and his administration did to the country should never be forgotten. The memoir is scheduled for release in late November 2026, and the New York Times published its excerpt on 10 November 2026. The book's account of Trump's 2021 letter, the riot and the 2024 meeting leaves the two former rivals' public and private accounts sharply apart. The timeline below sets out the key dates the excerpts describe.