Biden memoir reveals Trump's warm 2021 Oval Office letter: 'May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!'

Biden memoir reveals Trump's warm 2021 Oval Office letter: 'May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!'.

Former President Joe Biden's upcoming White House memoir, "Promise Me, America," publishes in full the handwritten letter President Donald Trump left for him in the Oval Office's Resolute Desk on Jan. 20, 2021, revealing a strikingly warm message from a man who had refused to concede the 2020 election, The New York Times first reported Tuesday.

The two-page note, written in black marker in an envelope addressed to "46," opens "Dear Joe" and is signed "Sincerely, Donald," according to the Associated Press, which reviewed a photocopy. "You now have the opportunity to choose your place in history, and I know you will be true to yourself and the American people," Trump wrote. He closed: "May God bless you and Jill, and may God bless America!"

Biden called the letter "very generous" in 2021 but kept its contents private. In the book, he writes that it seemed "as if there were two Donald Trumps": one who had "deeply destabilized our democracy" and skipped the traditional meeting between presidents, and another offering best wishes in language that sounded like it came from an old friend, according to excerpts reported by the Times and Fox News.

The White House confirmed the letter's authenticity but offered no warmth in return. "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," Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement reported by The Hill.

The Atlantic also highlighted a passage on Biden's 2024 transition meeting with Trump, which Biden said "bordered on fawning." The memoir is due Nov. 17.