Dear President Trump,
You’ve always fancied yourself as a straight-shooter so I’ll shoot straight with you: I’m not your biggest fan. In fact, it makes me rather ill to even use that title for you, but I’m going to follow Michelle Obama’s example and try to go high here.
For the past year I’ve made my concerns about the person you are, the campaign you ran, and the threat I believed you’d be to our country if elected—abundantly clear. But the Electoral College and some alleged Russian assistance awarded you the title you sought, and you’re now in the highest position of leadership in my country.
And honestly right now you’re blowing it—and I really don’t want you to blow it, because blowing it means many people suffer and fail and lose; both those who didn’t vote for you and those who did.
In your young tenure you’ve already taken to Twitter hundreds of times to lament the “unfairness” of those protesting against you, criticizing you, reporting on you, opposing you. You’ve attacked individual celebrities, Broadway shows, civil rights leaders, the Press, the Intelligence community, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, the Resistance, the Jewish community, our Generals, our allies. At every turn you’ve placed the blame on every person but yourself. And since you campaigned on the idea that you alone could fix all that supposedly ails America, this is more than a bit troubling. I think it shows your lack of character, your inability to own mistakes, and how ill-prepared you are for this job; things I and many others tried to warn people about.
And this is what concerns me: not that the Leader of the Free World would be forever tweeting his personal knee-jerk thoughts to the nation like a frustrated, hormonal, attention-seeking ninth grader (though this would be alarming for most rational people.) It’s that in the face of widely documented cases of hate crimes and violence and harassment directly born out of the bigoted rhetoric of your campaign and of those you’ve placed in your Cabinet—you are stunningly, perpetually silent.
Bullying happens, cemeteries are vandalized, teens commit suicide, bomb threats are made, shootings take place—
No middle of the night Tweets.
No bold diatribes.
No emotional rants.
Nothing.
You’ve spoken out incessantly against perceived slights against your own feelings, about damage to your ego, all the while completely ignoring the tangible, terrible suffering of the American people happening in your name this very minute. You’re using your power and position to portray yourself as the victim, while nurturing national resentment toward already marginalized segments of the population who were already grieving and feeling voiceless.
And this is the fear of well more than half the country, and the reason those people did not vote for you. It’s the reason I did not. I don’t believe that you’re trying to protect us. I think you’re leaving a great portion of our people vulnerable and exposed and without defense. I believe you’re doing us direct and intentional harm in these moments.
While you may love America as some lofty, elusive idea in your mind—I don’t think you love the freedoms and the equality this country was built upon. I don’t believe you love all Americans. I believe you have disregard for many of us. I believe you have contempt for most of us. I believe you are actively and willfully undermining the Constitution.
And here’s the thing Mr. President: I so want to be wrong about you.
Nothing would give me greater joy than to look back on these next four years, and to realize that despite your terrible history with women, and despite your incredibly harmful words during the campaign, and despite every vicious and irresponsible statement you’ve made so far (and there have been many)—that you surprised me with your maturity and dignity and compassion and restraint in these days.
I want nothing more than to see you rise up to the moment, and become someone who right now I don’t think you can be, someone who deserves this loftiest of places in this greatest of countries.
So the question I have for you, Mr President is: Will you prove me wrong?
Will you protect all Americans?
Will you openly condemn the acts of violence and intimidation against people of color, the gay community, Transgender individuals, the Muslim community, the Jewish community, against women, that are taking place right now?
Will you disavow racist graffiti made in your name?
Will you reassure those who are afraid right now, that you will not do them harm?
Will you state, with as much candor and directness and repetition as you have about so many other things—that you will not tolerate hatred by Americans toward their neighbors?
In the past few weeks, the answer to those questions have been a disturbing, resounding No, and that’s a problem.
Teenagers are being bullied based on their gender identity and sexual orientation, Muslim children being taunted at school,
People of color are experiencing open racism,
Jewish day schools are being threatened.
Is this what you meant by making America great?
Is this your idea of winning?
Your silence is answering for you right now, and the implication it makes is rather sickening.
I’m a Christian. (It’s been reported that you are too, though again I am not sure about that either based on what I can see from a distance.) My faith compels me to try and see the best in people, to look for the image of God within them, to remember their inherent goodness despite all appearances to the contrary.
I’m trying really hard to do that right now with you, Mr. President—really hard.
I’m trying to do that with those who voted for you.
I’m trying to do that even for those who are using this moment in history as a reason to purge America of those who don’t look or talk or think or worship or love the way they do.
I’m trying and it doesn’t seem like you are.
I’m relying on every fiber of my faith and humanity to give you a fair chance to be a leader, not just for white Americans, but for all Americans. I’m praying that you will become a man who deserves the title you have received and the nation you’ve been entrusted with, that you will embrace the full breadth of America’s diversity in ways you have not yet. I am praying that you will not let people of color or the LGBTQ community or the Muslim community or women or Jewish people become terrified of their own homeland. I’m praying that you become part of a really welcomed plot-twist for this country.
And that’s the beauty of all of this, Mr President: You get to choose now. You get to walk into the gravity of the moment and the magnitude of the office and you get to define your Presidency.
You get to prove those who are fearful now, wrong.
You get to prove those who feel they will be left without protection, wrong.
You get to prove the bigots and racists who believe they now have carte blanche to destroy their fellow Americans, wrong.
And you get to prove me wrong. Please prove me wrong, Mr. President.
It would be the most welcome and most life-giving surprise of my life to be wrong right now.
I don’t want you to make America great, it is already great. I want you to contribute to its goodness. I want you to see and defend the goodness in all of its people. I want you to be less than the total embarrassment that frankly, you have been up until now.
I’ll be watching. History will be, too. The full glare of the spotlight is upon you now, and you will not be able to avoid or deflect it. That light will expose you and the choices you make.
Your move.
