WASHINGTON — President Trump revealed Tuesday night that former President Joe Biden left him an “inspirational” message before leaving the Oval Office for the last time.
“It said ‘To number 47’ and it was a very nice one,” Trump told reporters during a question-and-answer session in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
“Basically, it was a little bit of an inspirational-type letter, you know, ‘Enjoy it. Do a good job.’”
Trump, 78, had displayed the envelope with “47” written on the outside to the press while signing executive orders in the Oval Office Monday night, but had declined to open it in public.
The welcome note, a tradition of the presidential succession, was left in a drawer of the Resolute desk for Trump to discover after taking office.
“Important. Very important, how important the job is,” Trump said Tuesday, continuing to describe the note. “I think I should let people see it, because it was a positive for him.”
The president added that he “appreciated” the message left by Biden, his longtime political rival.
Biden did not reveal details of the letter Trump left for him in 2021, but said the note was “generous.”
Also Tuesday, during the same media availability, Trump hit his predecessor for for pardoning his family members and issuing pre-emptive pardons to figures including Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci and Mark Milley.
“Joe Biden gave a pardon yesterday to a lot of criminals. These are criminals that he gave a pardon to, and you should be asking that question, why did he give a pardon to all of these people that committed crimes?” the president said in response to questions about his pardons of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot defendants.
“Why did he give a pardon to the J6 unselect committee, when they burned and destroyed all documents which showed that they did what was wrong, not me?” Trump said, referencing Cheney.
“Why did they give a pardon to all of his relatives?” he added. “His brother [James] made millions of dollars to all these different people.”
