Joe Biden Exposes 'Fawning' Trump Meeting Before Declaring His January 6 Actions Should Follow Him to the Grave

Joe Biden's forthcoming memoir reveals Donald Trump privately told him in the Oval Office that they would be good friends, while condemning Trump's January 6 actions as something that should follow him to his grave.

The two moments sit inside the same book, 'Promise Me, America', and the first excerpt landed in The Atlantic on Monday. It is among Biden's sharpest criticisms of Trump since leaving office.

Biden writes that Trump's tone during their meeting, eight days after the 2024 election, 'bordered on fawning'. 'You know, Joe, if it weren't for politics, I believe we'd be good friends,' Trump said, according to Biden, who added that the remark left him 'too stunned to respond'.

The Compliment That Stunned Him

The encounter took place in the Oval Office on 13 November 2024, after voters returned Trump to power. Cameras captured the two men seated by the fireplace, smiling for a transition portrait. It was the traditional post-election meeting that Trump himself had refused to give Biden four years earlier.

Biden recalls Trump complimenting his jobs record and saying he had been relieved he didn't have to run against him again. The warmth reads as almost impossible, coming from the same man Biden accuses of trying to overturn an election, a bitter contrast to their years of public hostility.

A Verdict Meant To Last

Then the book turns cold. 'Donald Trump led an insurrection,' Biden writes of the attack on the Capitol as Congress met to certify his 2020 win.

He argues Trump and his allies 'continue to preen and posture' as friends of law enforcement while excusing violence against officers. 'What Trump did on January 6, 2021, should never be forgotten. It should follow him to his grave,' he writes.

Biden also condemns Trump's sweeping January 6 clemency, covering more than 1,500 defendants, saying the rioters deserved prison, a position sharply at odds with Trump's sweeping pardons.

The Book He May Not Fully Promote

Biden will make fewer appearances to carry that message to the public. He confirmed on Sunday that prostate cancer will curb his book promotion. 'Some days are better than others. It hasn't stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down,' he wrote.

His office disclosed the aggressive diagnosis in May 2025, and his son Hunter told the BBC in August that the disease had spread to his father's bones 'and further'. His doctors remain encouraged by his response to treatment. The memoir arrives on 17 November.

A Title Rooted in Grief

The title carries its own weight. It echoes 'Promise Me, Dad', Biden's 2017 book about his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015. That earlier promise was a private one between father and son. This one is addressed to the country, asking Americans to remember its founding promise of equality.

The irony he leaves on the page is hard to miss. The man who told him they could have been friends is the same man he wants history to judge without mercy.

Biden ends the excerpt with a plea rather than a boast, insisting the nation hold on to that promise even as illness limits his ability to promote it.