Dear President Trump,

It’s not quite 4pm and the sun has almost set here. We’ll probably have another 30 or so minutes of daylight (I’ll still be typing to you so I’ll let you know when it gets dusky-dark) at which time we’ll be about 4 and a half hours from the government shutting down. Rather fitting that it looks like it’ll happen on the darkest day of the year. Did Vladimir cook this timing up for dramatic effect? As shitty as it is that a government shutdown means that thousands of federal workers are furloughed and won’t get paid on time (if ever), the Democrats need to not cave and give you the wall money. You are an out of control bully and if we give in to your demands when your throw tantrums, it will only embolden you (and your handlers) further.

Yesterday Jennifer Rubin advocated that the transcriber’s notes from your private Helsinki meeting with Vladimir be released. As good an idea as that is, it really would only be helpful if there were some way to vet that the notes accurately reflect what was said, were put in safekeeping immediately after the meeting, and were not altered. Not only can those things never be guaranteed, those notes aren’t ever going to be released.

And yet. I do think it is worthwhile to ask whether your decisions to pull out of Syria and largely out of Afghanistan were motivated by a need to show Vladimir that you are loyal to him. Was there a deadline by which you needed to make some gesture to prove you are his willing minion or he’d expose you? He appears to be the only one happy about this decision – even your gutless GOP props are sputtering to life, blinking the sleep from their eyes, saying they think this is a bad move.

At what point do we start calling your actions treason? I think we’ve been slow off the mark on this, but now would make sense. Here’s what the Google Dictionary says treason is:

noun: treason
       1. the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.
synonyms: treachery, disloyalty, betrayal, faithlessness
antonyms: allegiance, loyalty

Sadly, you are functioning as the sovereign and thus far no one has attempted to kill you so you can ignore that part of the definition, but the rest of it fits you to a “T” – you have betrayed your country and in undermining the government you’ve essentially overthrown it. You are treacherous and disloyal. You have no sense of allegiance or loyalty to anyone or anything that isn’t lining your pockets or blackmailing you.

I was off by 7-ish minutes – it’s 4:32 and dark now.

May we be safe.
May we care about Syrian, Yemeni, and Afghani children’s lives, their happiness.
May Ruth Bader Ginsburg be healthy and strong.
May we not make peace with or acclimate to your treasonous actions.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson