After four years of shattering precedent inside the White House,
President Donald Trump took part in one final presidential
tradition on his way out of office Wednesday: leaving a letter for
his successor inside the Oval Office.
Trump spokesperson Judd Deere confirmed Wednesday that the
president had written a letter to President-elect Joe Biden and
left it for him in the Oval Office’s Resolute Desk. The Trump White
House did not divulge the contents of what Trump left for Biden to
read.
Trump has forsaken other symbolic aspects of the transfer of
power between presidents — including skipping Biden’s
inauguration on Wednesday and instead heading to his private club
in Florida after a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews.
The letter-writing tradition between outgoing and incoming
presidents is a relatively recent one, having been started
lightheartedly by former President Ronald Reagan for his vice
president George H.W. Bush. The message was written on stationary
that included the aphorism “Don’t let the turkeys get you
down” with a depiction of an elephant surrounded by said
birds.
Arguably the most famous of these letters —�Bush’s 1993 letter
to Bill Clinton — is also the most comparable to the Trump-Biden
dynamic, as both featured presidents leaving office following
unsuccessful re-election bids and hard-fought campaigns.
In it Bush struck a conciliatory note, writing that he considers
Clinton to be “our President,” underlining the first word for
emphasis.
“Your success is now our country’s success. I am rooting hard
for you,” Bush wrote.
Upon his arrival to the White House, Trump received a letter
from President Barack Obama wishing him and his administration good
fortune and urging him to endeavor to leave the “instruments of
our democracy at least as strong as we found them.â€
