US President Donald Trump attends a briefing on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC, USA, 21 January 2025. Trump is expected to announce a 500 US billion dollar AI infrastructure investment in the US. EPA-EFE/AARON SCHWARTZ / POOL 
Trump told reporters he opened the letter on Monday evening and was thinking of making it publicly available. He said Biden advised him to enjoy his term and emphasized the importance of the role.
"It said, 'To Number 47,' Trump said. "It was a very nice one .... just basically a little bit of an inspirational-type letter. Enjoy it. Do a good job. Important, very important how important the job is."
Trump, who was inaugurated to his second term in the White House on Monday, said he felt he should let people see the letter because it was "a positive" for Biden.
Trump found the handwritten letter in the desk on Monday during a ceremony in the Oval Office after a journalist asked if he had received a message from Biden. He held it up for the cameras, showing a handwritten "47," saying he would read it privately before deciding whether to release its contents.
Trump, the first president since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s to serve nonconsecutive terms, left a letter for Biden when he took office in January 2021. Biden said it was a "very generous" letter but never released it publicly.
Former President Ronald Reagan started the modern letter-writing tradition in 1989, leaving one for his vice president and successor, George H.W. Bush, on stationery marked "Don't let the turkeys get you down."
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Andrea Shalal and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Leslie Adler)