Dear President Trump,

I wonder whether any day now your camp is going to pivot on the Wolff F & F book and claim that his commentary on how none of you expected to nor wanted to win the election is “proof” you all didn’t collude with Russia. It would be a tidy turn of the narrative for you all. I realize it would be somewhat awkward since you’ve already claimed the book is patently unfair and inaccurate, but the sort of cherry picking I’m suggesting is something you all are masters at. It shouldn’t be too hard to convince your base that even an enemy like Wolff is saying the collusion thing is a scam; if you didn’t want to win, why would you collude with Russia to win? Adding in some hypnotic suggestions that they never saw the quotes from Bannon about Jr.’s meeting with the Russian operative being treasonous would probably be a good idea if you decide to take this tack.

All this is not to say I don’t think you colluded with Russia (and select wealthy Americans) to win the election. I do think you did. What is curious is that the F & F book claiming you didn’t want to win is coming out now as things are heating up in the Mueller investigation and Republican senators are grasping at straws to undermine the FBI and its sources (i.e., the request to bring charges against Steele). Maybe it’s a coincidence and the publisher just wanted to hurry up and make more money. Maybe it’s a handy way for you all to confuse things and insert something into the public debate to undermine the collusion motives. Maybe it’s both or maybe it’s something else altogether. Maybe Wolff accurately reported that you all said you didn’t want to win but this was really a strategic charade to later be able to counter the collusion accusations. If so, it was probably Bannon or Putin’s idea.

Who knows? Well, probably someone knows or quite a lot of someones know, but it’s unlikely anyone is going to be setting the record straight anytime soon. Regardless of whether there is any intrigue or duplicitousness behind the F & F statements on your lack of enthusiasm about winning, it seems just a matter of time (and not much of it) before you all are trying to use this to your advantage.

I think we all need a blessing tonight:

May we be safe from manipulative narratives.
May we be able to trust the nobility of our leaders’ motives.
May our democracy be healthy and strong.
May we figure out how to safeguard the nuclear codes from not so genius, not so stable persons.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson