Dear President Trump,

Sometimes it really doesn’t work to try to cheer oneself up with a platitude like “ this too shall pass” or “just hang in, it’ll be ok.” You may be getting a taste of this with everything you’ve got going on and how bleak it’s looking for you as more of your erstwhile loyal peeps flip on you and fling your dirty laundry about. Unless you are ingesting some sort of happy pills, you’re certainly in a situation where it’s pointless to try to cheer up. Laura and I are too, but for a very different reason than you; for us it’s that our brother-in-law (BIL) is gone and no amount of time or shift in circumstances can fix this.

Today we did our usual Saturday house cleaning, running of errands, long dog walking, and cooking. It was all fine to do, but the permanent BIL-shaped hole in the universe made it feel like we were just going through so many motions, plodding through the day until we can go to sleep and forget for a little while. It doesn’t help that I have to leave again tomorrow to give a talk in DC. I’ll only be gone two nights this time, but it’s hard to leave Laura right now and the prospect of making nice and being pleasant with a lot of people I don’t know is daunting. Fortunately it’s for a good cause (I get to talk about women Veterans with substance abuse issues) so that helps some.

On a different note, have you been following the interviews with Paula Duncan, the juror who’s all set to vote for you again but who’s been pretty dang awesome at articulating how clearly guilty Manafort is and how you shouldn’t pardon him? It’s very too bad that she keeps referring to the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt”, but it’s really nice that even someone who supports you can both see and will say she sees that what Manafort did was wrong and illegal and that he should not be let off for being loyal to you. The bar is quite low these days, but this is still incredibly refreshing. I also am heartened by her idea for a new, improved slogan; “Make America Kind Again”. MAKA has a nice ring to it and if even a quarter of your base got behind it, we’d be making a great dent in the crappy meanness and race-baiting you’ve been peddling all these months.

May we be safe to be complicated and not conform to expectations.
May we hold space for happiness with the idea that it’ll show up again sooner or later.
May we take care of our health even when we are tired and sad.
May we make kindness our cornerstone and build from there.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson