Dear President Trump,

Happy Tax (Evasion) Day! Is the “ha – they are such fools, they don’t know how I’m fleecing them!” glee you typically feel on April 15^th somewhat dampened this year by the looming threat of having your recent tax history on display for all to see? Sarah Sander’s latest missive regarding your refusal to release your tax returns makes the earlier excuses look downright brilliant – how can she keep from guffawing out loud while telling the press you aren’t inclined to share your returns with Congress because Congress isn’t smart enough to understand them? Seriously! Maybe SS is working on an exit strategy and is practicing her standup routine until such time that she can’t get her face to make that stern “I know you know I’m lying, but I’ll tear your head off if you call me on it” look one more time.

In a below the fold WP Op Ed this morning historian Jeffery Engel argued that you would have been long gone had you somehow been elected POTUS when the founders were around. He pointed out that we don’t need the Mueller report (duh!) to know that you’ve put your own interests ahead of the country’s more times than any of us can count and that this lack of virtue is disqualifying. He did a nifty compare and contrast between you and George Washington and you come out looking the total sleaze that you are.

Engel also included bits of something so yucky you said that I nearly gagged when I read it. I tracked down the quote and it’s what you told the American Farm Bureau Federation back in January 2018: “Oh, are you happy you voted for me. You are so lucky that I gave you that privilege.” Not sure how that one slipped by me. It should go without saying, but given that you are my primary intended audience (no matter that you won’t ever, in a million years see this), I want to be sure you understand that you are supposed to say (and preferably believe) that it is a privilege to serve us, and that you shouldn’t even joke about deigning to give us the opportunity to vote for you (not that 74 million of us did, mind you).

Here are a couple more things I’ve come across lately that capture the zeitgeist of our times smashingly well:

• Recent Tweet: “It’s really stressful to have the most detestable person in America running the country” Scott Tobias (film/TV writer)
• Bumper sticker on car at church yesterday: “Any Functioning Adult ~ 2020”

Obviously they are both speaking to the experiences of the majority of Americans and not to your base. Nor do they address the rocky chasm between the us’es and the them’s (interchangeable, depending which side of the abyss one is on), but they are certainly neat and succinct summations of how it feels to me to be living in the miasma of your shadow.

May we be safe from you.
May we all be willing to privilege people over tax cuts and stacked judiciaries (GOP – I’m talking to you).
May we recognize that healthy governance is predicated on virtue and respect.
May you not start a war.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson

p.s., Notre Dame was intact when I started this letter and now it is not. I’m not sure why, but my ears are ringing as I try to wrap my heart around the magnitude of this loss. ts