President Donald Trump reportedly told former President Joe Biden that they would have been “good friends” in another life if they hadn’t gone face-to-face politically.
According to Biden’s new book “Promise Me, America,” Trump had nothing but kind words for the former president after winning the 2024 presidential election, despite his repeated attacks on Biden’s cognitive health just months prior.
Caleb Larson reports on an Iran war entering its sixth month: a Pentagon cost figure disputed as an undercount, Republicans tepid on more funding, and Trump warning of a ‘last chance’ and ‘decapitation.’ Reuters reports tankers running the Houthi blockade dark while others divert, and The Guardian says Riyadh may be preparing a land offensive.
President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, Monday, July 27, 2026. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
“You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,” Trump reportedly told Biden during an unusual meeting, after years of claiming the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that Biden was an illegitimate president.
Biden Reveals Warm Letter Trump Gave Him in 2021
The former president’s new book also revealed, for the first time, the contents of a letter reportedly written by Trump to Biden at the end of his first term in the White House.
In that letter — which is entirely unlike anything Trump has ever written, and which lacks the instantly identifiable style of Trump’s writing and mannerisms in social media posts and in speeches — the president skipped the usual insults and instead left his successor a warm message about being “true to yourself and the American people.”
“Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats,” the letter, written in black Sharpie, read. “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.”
After praising Biden’s “deepest reservoir of strength” and his “energy,” the letter then concluded, “May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!”
In the book, Biden used the letter to suggest that two Trumps existed: one who “deeply destabilized our democracy,” and another who was “offering his best wishes in warm language that sounded like it was coming from an old friend.”
Former Trump Official Says It’s Unlikely Trump Actually Authored the Warm Letter
Trump’s former White House director of strategic communications, Alyssa Farah Griffin, however, expressed doubt that Trump had personally authored the letter.
“I would bet a large sum of money the President did not write this, and likely not one of his speechwriters either. My guess is someone on his correspondence staff wrote it,” reacted Griffin in a social media post. “They send birthday wishes, etc on behalf of the WH.”
David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to 44th president Barack Obama, also expressed doubt that Trump wrote it, writing, “What are the odds that [Trump] actually wrote this letter, eloquently lavishing praise and good wishes on the man he maintained was the beneficiary of a stolen election?”
He questioned, “And how does this ode to the White House square with his frequent depictions of it as a dilapidated mess in need of his golden touch?”
White House Responds to Biden’s New Book, Calling Former President a ‘Disgrace’
President Trump’s White House responded to the publication of the letter in a statement on Tuesday, railing against Biden’s time in the Oval Office.
“Joe Biden should have heeded the president’s wise words, but instead he tried to destroy this country and weaponize the justice system against his political enemies,” wrote White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. “Biden is a disgrace, and America is better off with him no longer as president.”
Trump Has Repeatedly Ridiculed and Belittled Biden in His Second Term
In his second term, Trump has repeatedly railed against and ridiculed Biden, even replacing Biden’s official presidential portrait with a photo of an “autopen” on a “Presidential Wall of Fame” outside the White House — a reference to his repeated claims that Biden used an autopen to sign his presidential pardons instead of signing them himself, and that the pardons were therefore illegitimate.
In September, while giving Chinese President Xi Jinping a tour of the White House, Trump showed his Chinese counterpart the Biden autopen portrait.
“This is the autopen… it’s Biden,” mocked Trump, as Xi and several others laughed.
Trump also mocked Biden during a Las Vegas speech in August, telling a toddler he wanted to stop him from falling off the stage like Biden—a reference to the 83-year-old former president’s frequent mobility gaffes and blunders between 2021 and 2025.
About the Author: Charlie Nash
Charlie Nash is a journalist and author whose work has appeared in The Spectator, Mediaite, New Statesman, and the American Conservative, among other major publications. His reporting has been featured by The Washington Post, Fox News, the Daily Beast, MS NOW, NewsNation, Hannity, and more. You can follow Charlie on X at @CharlieNash and on LinkedIn.
