Dear President Trump,

You’ve made it clear from the beginning that you’re equally adept at being self-serving, inhumane, and downright cruel whether the context is intimately interpersonal or on a grand, international scale. There may be other types who can do it as well, but my sense is that only a true sociopath can pull this off no matter who is involved and what is at stake. Between your abandonment of the Syrian Kurds and the bizarre and inappropriate surprise you pulled on Harry Dunn’s parents, Charlotte Charles and Tim Dunn, you have solidified yourself among the greatest and worst sociopaths of all time. Not exactly something a mother would be proud of, but there you go.

I will probably never know for sure whether my theory about your base motives are correct regarding your attempt to get Dunn’s parents to meet with the woman who killed him. You might have convinced yourself that you could singlehandedly solve this international conflict if they took you up on your offer of meeting with her right there and then, if you could get the parties in a room together to cry and kiss on camera and say they are willing to let it go and move forward. Then you would be the hero and importantly, you wouldn’t have to make the call to waive Anne Sacoolas’s diplomatic immunity so that she would have to face the consequences of the British legal system. That would have been quite a coup for you and conveniently it would have all been captured on film, no doubt with you smugly smiling that “cat who ate the canary” smile of yours, thinking “damn, I’m good.”

Honestly, that’s the most charitable story I can tell about your motives. Even if we were to stick with it, we should take a look at what’s missing – as in any empathy whatsoever for either Dunn’s parents or Sacoolas in subjecting them to a circus-like atmosphere, let alone springing the proffered meeting on Charles and Dunn at all. Laura said you were trying to play game show host like the old “This is Your Life” where important people in the main contestant’s life make surprise appearances, but with an especially sick twist.

You know, I would never wish any of this on any of these people or on Harry, but I think it’s instructive that the Americans involved are uniformly not coming across as having even an iota of integrity or humanity. After driving on the wrong side of the road around a blind curve and killing Harry, Sacoolas fled the UK using her diplomatic immunity as cover, presumably aided by her Diplomat husband Jonathan. She now has not only refused to return to the UK to face the legal and full emotional consequences of her actions, but she agreed to be some weird surprise anti-prize in your drama. And then there’s you. After making light of the situation by saying it’s easy to end up driving on the wrong side of the road and refusing to waive Sacoolas’s diplomatic immunity in a situation where she was clearly at fault and this is clearly not some ginned up charge against an American, you have the gall to meet with the victim’s parents and “give them the opportunity” to meet out of the blue with the woman who killed their son and won’t face the consequences.

It’s horrible, but every single day you’re piling on reasons for us to be embarrassed to be Americans.

Harry’s parents, on the other hand, had the presence of mind to turn down the offer (even after you kept pressuring them to meet Sacoolas). They also had the grace to say that they do want to meet with her, but they want it to be in England with therapists and mediators present and everyone prepared for the meeting. Even in the midst of their horrible loss, they are the most clear-thinking, compassionate ones in the mix and I think it is so wonderful that they held their ground and didn’t succumb to what was probably intense pressure to go along with your sick, self-serving plan.

May we ourselves be safe and may our actions towards others be safe.
When we harm others, may we be willing to face them and the consequences properly.
May we have the maturity to withstand undue, inhumane pressures to act against our own interests.
May whoever has been quietly freaking out, watching you from the wings of your administration, break their silence. Now.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson