A secret note to '46': Gracious words in the drawer after weeks of bitter public dispute
WASHINGTON — November 11, 2026.
In one of the most unexpected historical revelations to emerge from modern American presidential transitions, former President Joe Biden has published the complete text of the private handwritten letter that Donald Trump left in the Oval Office's Resolute Desk on the morning of January 20, 2021.
The disclosure, featured in Biden’s newly published memoir Promise Me, America, pulls back the curtain on a closely guarded secret that has captivated historians for nearly six years. While Trump famously boycotted Biden’s swearing-in ceremony and departed Joint Base Andrews to the tune of "My Way" while fiercely contesting the 2020 election results, his private actions inside the Oval Office told a radically different story.
Sitting down at the historic desk for the first time as commander-in-chief on the afternoon of his inauguration, Biden opened the center drawer and found a folded sheet of creamy, embossed White House stationery inscribed simply: “To 46.”
“The president wrote a very generous letter,” Biden had remarked cryptically to reporters on his first day in office, refusing for years to disclose its contents out of respect for presidential confidentiality. Now made public, the note reveals an introspective, encouraging, and surprisingly statesmanlike farewell message.
'You will be true to yourself': Full text of Trump's handwritten January 20, 2021 message
Written in Trump’s distinctive bold, angled black marker script, the letter refrained from any mention of election challenges, political parties, or lingering grievances, focusing entirely on the gravity of the office and patriotism:
“You now have the opportunity to choose your place in history, and I know you will be true to yourself and the American people... Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats. Largely, they did not change history, they were just swept along in its relentless tide. This will not happen to you because I know how much you love the American people.”
Trump concluded the note with warm personal wishes for Biden’s family and his prayers for the nation's success.
The message maintained a sacred modern White House tradition begun in January 1989, when Ronald Reagan left a handwritten note for George H.W. Bush featuring a cartoon turkey and the admonition, “Don’t let the turkeys get you down.” Subsequent departing commanders-in-chief—including George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama—each left heartfelt letters of counsel and encouragement for their successors.
The duality of power: How Biden grappled with the contrast between private statesman and public fighter
Reflecting on the note in his memoir, Biden writes candidly about the profound cognitive dissonance he experienced while reading Trump’s words in the quiet of the Oval Office, just hours after walking past security checkpoints erected in the shadow of the January 6 Capitol unrest.
“Reading it, it was as if there were two Donald Trumps,” Biden observes in the book. “There was the public warrior who rallied crowds, attacked institutions, and fought every headline. And then there was this man—alone at the Resolute Desk late at night or early in the morning—who felt the crushing weight of the presidency, understood the lonely burden of the chair, and wanted his successor to succeed for the sake of the country.”
Presidential historians and political analysts noted that the letter provides rare documentary insight into Trump’s private perception of the presidency. Rather than viewing the office purely through partisan combat, Trump privately recognized that transformative leadership requires rising above routine party affiliation.
“It proves that even in America’s most fractured political moments, the institutional gravity of the presidency leaves an indelible mark on every person who sits in the Oval Office,” said a presidential historian with the White House Historical Association.
