Dear President Trump,

What happens now? Are you going to start detaining entire families in cages? Although that would be marginally better than sending parents and children to separate cages hundreds of miles away from each other, it is still a sick, cowardly approach to the humanitarian crises asylum seekers and immigrants from Mexico and Central America are fleeing and our role in them. Also, when are families going to be reunited? What about those situations where parents have already been deported? And did you dress Melania today? That jacket in that context was some kind of over-the-top sick. You just had to whack the hornets’ nest, didn’t you?

I want to return, though to the story of Andrew Feinberg having called you out directly on lying because it seems to have largely been buried (I can only find a few tweets about it). Given that it may be confusing just which lie of yours he was calling out, I’ll remind you that he was asking you why you were saying the IG’s report on the FBI’s handling of Mrs. Clinton’s emails vindicated you with regard to the Russia investigation. You were pushing an utterly self-serving lie and he correctly called you on the carpet for it.

In addition to being medal worthy, I like the way he put the question to you: “Why are you lying about it, sir?” In trying to find the original documentation of the exchange, I found that some people take issue with his habitual use of “sir” when interacting with you, saying that it affords you too much respect. Feinberg says he uses the honorific for the office and not for you. I think it’s smart to keep pointing out to you and to the rest of us that you are our president whether you act like our president or not. The juxtaposition of directly asking the POTUS why he is lying framed with the respectful use of the word “sir” serves to highlight the gravity of our situation far better than something like “Why are you lying about it, a*******?” The expletive would be more viscerally satisfying to say and for many of us to hear, but it would not be nearly as effective. And goodness knows, we need to be strategic in opposing you and yours and we need to not sell our souls in the process.

May we keep our souls safe and intact as we protest and insist on a better, more perfect union.
May we be happy to keep directly calling out corruption and lies.
May we make sure the brave ones who call you out stay healthy and alive.
May we not be complicit for the sake of short-term ease.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson