Hours after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America (USA), a fake letter purportedly signed by former President Donald Trump went viral on social media. “Joe, you know I won,” the letter quotes Trump as saying.
CLAIM
The aforementioned letter is being massively circulated on Twitter and Facebook. It seems to be signed by Donald Trump with a seal of the President of the United States at the top.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
While Donald Trump has definitely left a letter for his successor Biden, the text of the said letter is not available in the public domain. According to a report by CNN, Joe Biden told reporters that Trump has left him a ‘very generous letter’ but he added that he won’t reveal the content of the letter because ‘it was private’.
Next, we compared the format of the viral letter with another letter written by Donald Trump and found that the format of date differs in the two letters. While earlier letters drafted by trump followed MM-DD-YYYY date format, the viral letter has used DD-MM-YYYY format.
Even the seal on top is not the same as those featured in other official letters written by Trump.
Another report by CNN on letters by outgoing US Presidents addressed to their successors, quotes a senior Trump aide as saying that Trump’s letter to Biden is, “A personal note that prays for the success of the country and the new administration to care for the country.”
Further, we found several versions of Trump’s alleged letter to Biden circulating online with the exact same template.
An archived version of the Tweet can be accessed here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
There is absolutely no evidence to prove that this letter is the original letter that Trump left for his successor, Biden, before leaving the White House.
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