"Dear Joe, Coming to work every day in the Oval Office is a blessing beyond imagination. History resounds from every wall, every statue, every beautiful painting..."

"... and every corner of this magical place. Each staircase, hallway, and door leads to yet another door and memory, another inflection point in the glorious story of America. I hope you take a moment every single day to take stock of where you are and the people who came before you, the titans who shaped the course of human events. You now have the opportunity to choose your place in history, and I know you will be true to yourself and the American people. Many presidents have come and gone who simply governed as Republicans or Democrats. Largely, they did not change history, they were just swept along in its relentless tide. This will not happen to you because I know how much you love the American people...."

Wrote Donald Trump, in the letter he left in the Oval Office for Joe Biden, quoted in "'I Know How Much You Love the American People,' Trump Told Biden in 2021 Letter/The letter, which former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. details in a new book, is remarkable for a warm tone starkly at odds with his predecessor’s public comments" (NYT).

It's a warm letter. I wonder who drafted it. It doesn't sound like Trump, and I'm not saying that because I don't think Trump can be warm. And some of it does sound a lot like Trump. He's interested in architecture, interior design, and the profundities of history. I'm saying it doesn't sound like Trump because he used the phrase "inflection point."

In August 2020, I blogged about "inflection point" in a post that begins with a quote from Kamala Harris's convention speech:  "We’re at an inflection point. The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It’s a lot." I said:

I'd like to see person-in-the-street interviews testing whether people even understand what it means to say we're at an "inflection point."

I don't think I've ever used the phrase "inflection point" on this blog. I mean aside that time I quoted somebody saying "We’re at this inflection point where we want people to know where their quinoa is coming from." And one other time in a quote (about YouTube having an "inflection point" at which it detects fake clicks). I use the word "inflection" only to refer to the way people speak, not to refer to a place — something like a crossroads or a fork in the road....

At the time, Nate Silver preened: "Harris saying 'inflection point' seems like kind of a call-out to FiveThirtyEight readers, to be honest." He thought it was his phrase.

And Biden used it in his 2020 convention speech: "As many have said America is at an inflection point...." Biden kept using it: In his 2023 State of the Union: "My fellow Americans, we meet tonight at an inflection point...." In his 2024 address to the U.N.: "I truly believe we’re in another inflection point of world history. For the choices we make today will determine our future for decades to come." And about a random week in 2022: "Decades from now, people are going to look back at this week — with all we passed, and all we moved on — [and say] that we met the moment at this inflection point in history."

Maybe Biden kept using it because Trump's use of it in that letter had made a big impression, but I think it's a Democratic speechwriter's phrase. I like to think Trump wrote the letter all by himself, but I just don't think he'd write "inflection point." But then, I don't think his speechwriters would write "inflection point." Go ahead, see if you can find "inflection point" in all the voluminous verbiage that is Trump's.

Maybe the best explanation of "inflection point" in that Trump letter is it's some sort of Trumpian joke. A subtle dig, using your stock phrase? Whether it's a good joke or not — whether Biden would feel needled or not — doesn't matter. 

Now, you could wonder whether that text Biden published is the true text of what Trump wrote in his letter. Maybe Biden or whoever wrote Biden's book tweaked the text, and I've used their shibboleth to uncover their dishonesty. No, I don't think the letter is fake. It puts Trump in a warm light. What's the motivation for that?