Dear President Trump,

6:30am
Now what? You’ve got a lot on your plate today for sure. Two failed votes in the Senate yesterday, one of which revealed that your party unity is showing significant signs of shred. LaGuardia can’t function properly because not enough air traffic controllers came to work today. Roger S was arrested for lying to Congress and witness tampering (what was with the FBI agents being accompanied by a SWAT team??). Jared K was officially denied top-secret clearance but somehow your peeps are gave him a pass. And to top it off, the NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors, visited with President Obama and not you. I realize you could probably give a rat’s ass about the last thing, but still, it’s one more sign that all is not well in the land of Trump.

Are you going to try to sort out what to do to manage the fall out or are you going to hole up and eat the leftover Clemson happy meals and watch Fox and Friends?

6:30pm
Wow! The past 12 hours have been filled with shocks and thrills. You came around and gave the nod to open the government – how very big of you! Yes, it’s only for three weeks if you don’t get money for the great big impressive, gee-everyone-can-see-it physical wall you promised your peeps, but now government workers can be paid and in turn can take care of their families and bills.

What finally did it? The reports of government workers resorting to food banks and being unable to pay their basic bills have been airing for days (weeks, really) so surely you could have stomached a few more days, weeks, or months of that. I’m betting it was the spectre of a major airline incident. The idea that you could be blamed for a terrorist attack or for two planes running into each other was probably more than you were willing to risk in terms of your political currency. Plus, you were going to take heavy hits if delays affecting thousands of travelers and millions of dollars worth of goods went past today. So, I think your decision was an effort to mend your own political hide and most certainly was not coming from any sort of compassion or concern for the people affected by the shutdown.

Whatever it was that drove you to cave, I’m glad you did.

May we be safe and not be used as political pawns.
May we be happy that Congress didn’t reinforce your horrible behavior.
May a miracle occur such that you and the GOP engage in healthy negotiations going forward.
May you not freak out and start a war.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson