Dear Mr. Trump:
This is the 25th letter that I’ve ever written to a President or President-Elect of the United States. It just so happens that I have written all of them to you, and I plan on writing another 47 letters. You might wonder why I’m doing it. Frankly, so have I. Some letters I have written to persuade you to see issues a little differently than you currently do. Others I have written to give a perspective on power, service, and governance you may not have considered. Still, others I have written to inspire you to be better than you currently are. We all need to be better—you and I included. It’s the only way America will survive.
Today, I write to you for a different reason. I write to thank you for your willingness to serve our country. I realized, for the first time, that though being President of the United States is the biggest job you’ve ever had, in many respects, you’re sacrificing much to assume this role. I believe you’re doing it for America. Now, you’re just 47 days away from taking an oath that will bind you—your mind, your energy, your existence—to preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution of the United States of America. You will have much to sacrifice on behalf of all Americans, and I thank you for being willing to do so.
But I am grateful not only to you. I thank Hillary Clinton for her service as well. She is an actual human being, which many have seemingly forgotten in their vicious vilifications of her and her family, cruelly castigating her as if she were immune from people’s digs and darts. I’m confident that her service to the United States (and the world at large) has caused her considerable human pain. She deserves my complete thanks and respect for doing things for everyone in America, including me, that I don’t even know she’s done.
I also thank Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Evan McMullin. They gave America a choice that was different than yours or Mrs. Clinton’s. They gave it to America. They endured the taunts and ridicule of people who mocked them for their Quixote endeavors.
I thank Bernie Sanders and sixteen Republican candidates that did not have your success.
I also write to confess and admit that throughout the campaign season I did not contain myself to merely discussing issues. At times, I treated each of the candidates as if you were inanimate things rather than actual human beings that feel pain, frustration, and sorrow just like the rest of us. For deviations from what my standard should have been, I give my heartfelt apology and commitment to a better job respecting the process and sticking to the issues rather than impugning character and motive.
Finally, I write to say to you, to Mrs. Clinton, and all the others: God bless you all for your service to us.
Sincerely,
David O. Leavitt
