Trump should read the letter Bush Sr sent to Bill Clinton to understand what it means to be presidential

Bill Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States of America on 20 January 1993.

He succeeded George H W Bush after a four year term in the office and was greeted by a handover note from the former President, as is customary.

The note was recently tweeted by freelance journalist Simon Cullen.

It reads:

Dear Bill,

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 that you will feel that, too.

I wish you great happiness here. I never felt the loneliness some Presidents have described.

There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I'm not a very good one to give advice; but just don't let the critics discourage you or push you off course.

You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well.

Your success now is our country's success. I am rooting hard for you.

Good luck,

George

It's a warm and presidential gesture that, as Cullen noted, reminds everyone politics can be civil. However, things deteriorated very quickly afterwards it seems.

Clinton's staff vandalised the White House to the tune of around $13,00-14,000 during their 2000 handover to George W Bush.

As a report from the Washington Post noted at the time...

Many aides assigned to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House discovered Monday that their computer keyboards were missing the W key – a critical problem given their boss' name is George W Bush.

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