Dear President Trump,

We saw our first irises and our first hummingbird of the season this morning. The hummingbird was quite entertaining – it flew way up high and hovered there while making very loud high pitched calls and then chittering like they do as it came down to alight on a tree branch for a few minutes before repeating the whole cycle again. The irises, of course, just sat still while Laura took their picture to send to our daughter (a family tradition).

Despite the seasonal firsts and it being the first day post-shutdown, I’ve felt fairly sour and frustrated all day. You probably didn’t have a great day either and probably felt worse than just sour and frustrated. Angry, bitter, scared, vindictive – those seem more in the ballpark for you today. You have a few people saying they think you made a genius move opening the government with no funding for your wall, but most think you caved or lost your nerve in the game of chicken you set up with Speaker Pelosi. Plus, there are others who find the timing interesting and wonder whether you (or maybe Vladimir) decided to end the shutdown yesterday to shift the conversation away from Roger Stone’s arrest.

Max Boot pointed out earlier today that if you can’t successfully negotiate here on your home turf, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to do so with either the Taliban over Afghanistan or Kim over nuclear disarmament. Boot (and I and a few millions others) is worried that you are going to agree to all sorts of gimmes without anything verifiable (or enforceable) in return. Yet again, it looks as though you’re not acting on behalf of either the American people or democracy and that someone is prodding, pushing, or pulling you to do things to upend Western stability.

If it’s ever proven that you have been systematically acting to further Russian interests that will surely go beyond censure or impeachment, right? You would spend the rest of your life in prison for that, wouldn’t you? Sadly, I won’t be holding my breath waiting for this to happen since it seems far more likely you’ll come through relatively unscathed while countless vulnerable people (like the undocumented workers your businesses knowingly hired who are now being sacrificed on the alter of your wall) will suffer in your stead.

May we all somehow be safe in spite of you.
May we be happy government workers will be paid soon.
May we have a healthy skepticism about any deals you say you can make.
May you not set us, the South Koreans, or the Afghans, up to be attacked.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson