Donald Trump spent his final days in the Oval Office claiming the election was rigged and skipped his successor’s inauguration, but wrote a “shockingly gracious” handover note to Joe Biden, according to a new book.
The upcoming book, titled The Fight of His Life and authored by Chris Whipple, focuses on Mr Biden’s presidency and reveals new details about the administration’s working.
Mr Trump followed the presidential tradition carried out by his predecessors and wrote a letter to his successor before leaving the Oval Office, said excerpts from the book obtained by Politico’s West Wing Playbook.
Mr Biden reacted to the note by saying: “That was very gracious and generous... Shockingly gracious”.
The letter, the contents of which Mr Biden has declined to reveal, came as a surprise because his predecessor had forsaken almost all other symbolic aspects of the transfer of power.
The one-time president skipped Mr Biden’s inauguration and flew to his Mar-a-Lago beach resort after a farewell ceremony at Joint Base Andrews.
“The president wrote a very generous letter,” Mr Biden had said in January last year, speaking to reporters for the first time after taking office as the new president.
“Because it was private, I will not talk about it until I talk to him, but it was generous”.
The book also reveals that Mr Biden was “annoyed” by his vice president Kamala Harris and called her a “work in progress”.
It was after second gentleman Douglas Emhoff complained about Ms Harris’ policy portfolio.
“Biden was annoyed,” Mr Whipple, who had access to Biden administration officials, wrote in the book. “He hadn’t asked Harris to do anything he hadn’t done as vice president – and she’d begged him for the voting rights assignment.”
The book also reveals top officials trading blame over the chaotic withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan. The Biden administration had to deal with the process to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war, becoming a turning point in his presidency and leading to a fall in his approval ratings.
Mr Whipple wrote that Mr Biden “felt let down by his briefers” regarding Afghanistan. The book shares several on-the-record interviews with top officials who blamed each other.
“Throughout this whole process there was an intelligence assessment that proved to be wrong: that the Afghan government and security forces would remain in place and hold on to the major cities well into the following year,” secretary of state Antony Blinken reportedly said.
Responding to the book, White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson told Politico they would not like to engage in confirmations or denials when it came to the specifics of such claims.
“The author did not give us a chance to verify the materials that are attributed here,” she added.
