Former President Joe Biden says President Donald Trump offered unusual praise and floated a personal friendship during their post-election White House meeting in 2024, according to Biden’s account in his forthcoming memoir.
In an excerpt published by The Atlantic on Nov. 9, Biden recalled being caught off guard when Trump, then president-elect, adopted a warm tone. He quoted Trump as saying, “You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends.” Biden and Jill Biden met Trump and his entourage in the Diplomatic Reception Room before Biden escorted Trump to the Oval Office for their formal meeting.
Trump also suggested they could golf together, Biden wrote. He praised Biden’s job-creation record as “extraordinary” and said he was relieved he would not have to run against Biden. Biden had withdrawn from the 2024 race before the meeting, and Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him as the Democratic nominee.
The friendliness surprised Biden after Trump’s campaign insults, including calling him “Sleepy Joe.” Biden wrote that the meeting followed the presidential tradition of an outgoing president receiving the president-elect after an election. He said he used the time to give Trump a broad overview of global affairs, including Ukraine, NATO, Gaza and China. Trump, in Biden’s account, focused on the personalities of foreign leaders. Biden wrote that the appointment, allotted 30 minutes, developed into an exchange lasting almost two hours.
Elsewhere in the excerpt, Biden revisited his criticism of Trump’s conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and his later clemency for people convicted over it.
In a Nov. 8 social media post about the memoir, Biden said his health had forced him to scale back in-person book events. He said some days were better than others and that he could not take part in as many book conversations as he had hoped, but added that he hoped “the words on the page speak for themselves.”
