Dear President Trump, The WP had a story this morning about your campaign promise that electing you president would lead to "every dream you ever dreamed for your country (coming) true." I had to reread the sentence several times and then googled it because I couldn't believe even you would say that, but sure enough, … Continue reading “Every dream you ever dreamed”
Critical Thinking
Healthy doses of doubt
Dear President Trump, Nothing in particular has gone wrong, but most of the day I've felt on the verge of tears. I'm guessing you don't have these sorts of days, but who knows? Maybe when you are alone or just spending time with Melania you can let your guard down and let yourself feel unsure … Continue reading Healthy doses of doubt
Beautiful doesn’t belong
Dear President Trump, I want to revisit Julius Goat's frame for ascertaining whether we are hewing to justice. Here it is again: "Every human being is a unique and irreplaceable work of art carrying unsurpassable worth." There are billions of reasons to remind you of this framing but the reason I want to focus on … Continue reading Beautiful doesn’t belong
“Made in America Week”
Dear President Trump, As always there are lots of worthy topics I could write you about between Sean Spicer resigning and Jeff Sessions being on the ropes and maybe down for the count, but I'm going to focus on it having been "Made in America Week." Who in your administration thought this was a good … Continue reading “Made in America Week”
You won by appealing to the worst in humanity (Fran Lebowitz)
Dear President Trump, Yesterday I read the NYT "Table for Three" piece featuring Fran Lebowitz and Bill Maher and I keep circling back to Lebowitz's statement that people who voted for you want the Confederate flag back. She also pointed out how you didn't win because you did anything right; you won by appealing to … Continue reading You won by appealing to the worst in humanity (Fran Lebowitz)
Dual citizenship
Dear President Trump, How was your 4th of July? Mine was pretty mixed. We have a tradition of having people over on the 4th for a potluck and then most of us walk to the park across the street where we can see fireworks off in the distance. We had our party, as usual, and … Continue reading Dual citizenship
America is still not America
Dear President Trump, The other day I signed up for a "poem-a-day" newsletter. I was looking for Langston Hughes's poem "Let America Be America Again," which should be required reading for US citizens on the 4th of July. In looking for the poem I stumbled on the option of having a poem show up in … Continue reading America is still not America
Far too many guns
Dear President Trump, I think one of the major functions these letters serve is that they've become a way for me to keep a diary of sorts during this nightmarish time. We'll certainly have newspaper and other archives, but it will be useful to me later to see some of what was going on for … Continue reading Far too many guns
I doubt there’s much internal discord there
Dear President Trump, This morning I came across a psychological measure I'd not been aware of before that assesses the degree to which people are comfortable with having discordant attitudes and behavior or engaging in discordant behaviors. I wonder how you'd score on it. I think a lot of people would presume your score would … Continue reading I doubt there’s much internal discord there
Can’t shoot the goose laying them golden eggs
Dear President Trump, This past Tuesday morning, around when you were sorting out which illogical excuse to use to fire Director Comey, I saw a large white work truck topped with a small crane off to the side of the road, broken down waiting to be loaded onto a tow truck. Emblazoned on the side … Continue reading Can’t shoot the goose laying them golden eggs
Daily Trump Letters 