Joe Biden prayed for Donald Trump in a letter he left behind for the incoming president in the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk, according to a report.
The contents of the letter, which Trump found in the Resolute Desk in a moment that was captured on video Tuesday, were posted to X by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy.
“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 in the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace for our nation.”
“May God bless you and guide you as He has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding,” Biden concluded the note, before signing it and dating it Jan. 20.
It is customary for outgoing presidents to leave a note for their successor on inauguration day.
The video of Trump finding the letter in the presidential office’s desk as he was signing executive orders went viral on social media.
He said he only checked the drawer for the letter after Doocy suggested that he do so, with Trump joking, “It could have been years before we found this.”
Although Trump opted not to share its contents on camera, he told reporters later on Tuesday that it was a “very nice letter.”
“It was a little bit of an inspirational type of letter,” he said, according to The Hill. “Enjoy it, do a good job. Important, very important. How important the job is.”
In 2021, Trump left his own letter to Biden, who later called it “shockingly gracious” but decided to keep the exact contents private, according to Politico.
Obama’s message to Trump in 2017 was the longest presidential transition letter on record. He politely reminded his political adversary of the responsibility “to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”
Perhaps the most famous president-to-president missive is George H.W. Bush’s note to Bill Clinton, which is often upheld as a paradigm of cross-aisle decorum.
“I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some Presidents have described,” Bush wrote. “There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I’m not a very good one to give advice; but just don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course.”
The letter tradition was started in 1989 by Ronald Reagan, who wrote to Bush, his former vice president, “George, I treasure the memories we share and I wish you all the very best. You’ll be in my prayers.”