Dear President Trump,

Well, the universe didn’t go all out for me today on my birthday since you’re still in office, but the release of the fairly lightly redacted Mueller report was a nice early B-day present yesterday. Yes, I get that you weren’t indicted, but the report isn’t exactly a content-less snoozer – even though a lot of it‘s retread, there’s still plenty of pulpy B-movie intrigue, including a bunch of times you tried to get your peeps to do Bad Things and they nobly did not do your bidding (at least some of them). This would be the time when most people would do some loud harrumphing to cover the embarrassment of having been caught in a lie or ten thousand. Most would then have the grace to look puzzled and kind of lost before finding an excuse to quietly exit stage left.

We all know you’re not most people, though, and the chance of you having the personal moral fiber that would force you to step back and stop the game is nil. Nada. You ain’t got it no way, no how.

We’re going to be hearing from you that the entire investigation was a disgraceful sham for way too much longer, and your backup chorus of mouthpieces will echo you for as long as they think they can make a buck. After all, you and they have committed to a script and the contract does not allow major plot redirections. There shall be no sun shaft from on high temporarily blinding our villain, causing the scales to fall from his eyes and the blood to start pumping in his nascent heart. No Grinch hearing-the-Whos-in-Whoville-singing-despite-having-their-holiday-trappings-stolen-from-them moment, no Resurrection-Sunday moment. Nope, your network sponsors and patrons aren’t ready to pull the plug. You’re still a useful tool, particularly for the one who’s using you to undermine the US specifically and democracy more generally, using you to give autocrats and dictator-types more elbow-room and to throw the Western world into chaos.

Basically, as long as we keep fighting over whether you said and did what has now been amply demonstrated you said and did and whether what you said and did even matters, Vladimir (and quite possibly the Mercers) will be the winner. We will remain vulnerable to cyber and social media attacks, distrust and polarization will be further entrenched. And, you will have done your real job superbly.

There is, unfortunately, the scary question of whether your patrons are going to make you twist for a while, leave you feeling unsure whether they have your back. If this is the case, we could be in for a terrifying few months as you lash out and lurch about trying to regain your bearings.

May we be safe from traitors.
May we all be willing to see what is in front of us.
May we muster the courage for healthy, decisive responses to what is in front of us.
May you not start a war.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson