Will Trump leave note for Biden? Here's why POTUS might end 32-year-old tradition of wishing successor good luck
A very unique tradition started 32 years ago in the White House. In 1989, when Ronald Reagan was leaving the presidency and his successor George HW Bush was about to assume the office, the former one left sort of an advisory note for him. He took out a pad decorated with a cartoon by humorist Sandra Boynton that has a phrase, “Don’t Let the Turkeys Get You Down.” The pad also had a collection of turkeys scaling a prone elephant — a symbol representing both men’s Republican Party.
Reagan began the letter by writing: “Dear George, You’ll have moments when you’ll want to use this particular stationery. Well, go to it.” He also spoke about treasuring “the memories we share” and concluded "I’ll miss our Thursday lunches. Ron.” This gesture of leaving a note has since then been followed by other presidents. However, this year, since Donald Trump is refusing to accept Joe Biden as the new leader of America, it is highly doubtful he will leave any such note for him.
Commenting on Reagan’s note to Bush, Jim Bendat, author of ‘Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President’, said: “It was a sort of a revelation that a note like this was left. We’ve come to expect them. It’s a great tradition. It’s one of those new traditions. And the traditions for Inauguration Day are like that — they often evolve through the years.”
In 1992, when Bush lost the election to Bill Clinton, he did not let bitterness prevail between them. “I leave a note on the desk for Bill Clinton. It looks a little lonely sitting there," Bush recalled in his book ‘All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings’. “When I walked into this office just now I felt the same sense of wonder and respect that I felt four years ago. I know you will feel that, too. I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some presidents have described." He also added: “I’m not a very good one to give advice; but just don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course. Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you. Good luck — George.”
Bush’s kind words even made Hillary Clinton cry with happiness. “It speaks not only of his grace, but ultimately what the presidency should be all about, which is thinking about your country first. Though he had been soundly defeated by Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, as a good American, was wishing the new president well,” Mark K Updegrove, a historian and CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, who has written about the Bush family, says.
Following the sweet tradition, Clinton, while leaving the Oval Office in 2000, wrote a note for George W Bush — the new president of the US. He said to George W Bush that the “burdens you now shoulder are great but often exaggerated” and that the “sheer joy of doing what you believe is right is inexpressible.” Similarly, Barack Obama received a letter from the younger Bush that read “critics will rage. Your ‘friends’ will disappoint you,” but ”no matter what comes, you will be inspired by the character and compassion of the people you now lead.” It got even more special as Bush’s twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, also had kind words for Obama’s daughters — Malia and Sasha Obama — who were ten and seven that time. The elder ones told the youngsters to “slide down the banister of the solarium" and "when your dad throws out the first pitch for the Yankees, go to the game.”
Then came 2017 when Trump took the highest seat and Obama told him: “This is a unique office, without a clear blueprint for success, so I don’t know that any advice from me will be particularly helpful.” He also added, “we are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions — like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties — that our forebears fought and bled for. It’s up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them.”
But Updegrove is positive regarding the note-leaving tradition. He said even if Trump does not write words for Biden, the latter will surely not follow his suit and he will easily restart it when he leaves the office. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he would do it graciously," Updegrove added.