The Aporia · Biden was ‘stunned’ after Trump told him they would have been ‘good friends’

Biden was ‘stunned’ after Trump told him they would have been ‘good friends’

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Parks, M. (2026, November 9). Biden was ‘stunned’ after Trump told him they would have been ‘good friends’. Washington Examiner. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/4797041/biden-stunned-trump-good-friends/

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Quick Summary

In his new book, former President Joe Biden recounts a meeting with then-President Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential transition period at the White House. According to Biden's account, Trump suggested they could have been “good friends” if not for politics, leaving Biden "stunned." The excerpt focuses on this interaction and its implications for their relationship.

Written by AI on 2026-11-09, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

In his upcoming memoir Promise Me, America, former President Joe Biden reveals an encounter with then-President Donald Trump during a 2024 White House transition meeting where Trump unexpectedly adopted a friendly tone and even complimented Biden's job creation record. According to Biden’s account published in The Atlantic on November 9, 2026, Trump told him, “You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends.” This statement surprised Biden, who was previously subject to insults like "Sleepy Joe" from Trump during the campaign. Despite their stark political differences and past adversarial relationship, Trump’s sudden friendliness left a lasting impression on Biden, highlighting an unexpected moment of camaraderie between two political rivals.

Written for “Biden Stunned by Trump's Remarks” on 2026-11-09, grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.

Why this leaning score

This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.

No political leaning scored for article 138832 · logged 2026-11-09

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 50% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.

Trump told Biden they’d be ‘good friends’ if not for politics, ex-president reveals Same event

The Independent

Hedges 2 of 25 claims Outlet record 59/100

Trump should carry Jan. 6 riots ‘to his grave,’ Biden says in memoir Different event

Global News

Hedges 4 of 45 claims Outlet record 63/100

“The articles describe different parts of Biden's book, one focusing on Trump buttering up Biden during their meeting and the other on Biden's criticism of Trump regarding Jan. 6.”

How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted

sentences that state something as happening or true

Uncertain

50%

1 of 2 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")

Leaning

not political

takes no side on a contested political question

Publisher signals

68/100

Washington Examiner's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.

Outlets on this story

Politics

Same framing elsewhere

articles that frame the event the way this one does

Analyzed 2026-11-09 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability

Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

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Running correction rate · 9 correction(s)

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Who wrote this

Molly Parks

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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

All 130 articles by Molly Parks →

Topics

No topics tagged.

Subjects

Biden PERSON · 2× Trump PERSON · 2× Donald Trump PERSON · 1× Joe PERSON · 1× Joe Biden PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Former President Joe Biden detailed his 2024 presidential transition meeting with President Donald Trump in an excerpt of his new book released Monday, describing how Trump was “buttering [him] up” at the White House that day.

framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-09

2026-11-09 · Washington Examiner

Biden was ‘stunned’ after Trump told him they would have been ‘good friends’ · mixed framing

Claims (2 extracted, 1 hedged)

Trump → detail → House

“You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,” Trump told Biden that day, according to Biden’s account teased in the Monday excerpt. uncertain

Trump → know → excerpt

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