Dear President-Elect Trump:
All-encompassing, all-consuming—I imagine that’s how you would describe building a government. No one has written a manual on being president. You do have people advising you. But ultimately, you’re on your own. It’s a precarious position. In the words of Gun Smoke’s Matt Dillon: “It’s a chancy job. . . . and a little lonely.” By necessity, you look at the world from a 45,000 foot perspective—America in macro. I imagine that it’s nearly impossible to do it any other way.
But in the last two weeks, you have demonstrated a proclivity for accomplishing what everyone in the world said was nearly impossible.
Now you’ve got 60 days before you are President of the United States. You could easily spend each of those 60 days looking at macro America from 45,000 feet above the surface. But don’t do it. Spend 59 days looking at America the macro and one-day examining America the micro. One day in the micro will be enough to give context and depth to America from 45,000 feet. It will change everything.
It won’t work, however, if everyone knows what you’re doing. If your transition team announces that you will look at America up close, you will experience a faux American close-up. People will manufacture what they want you to see. That’s because the media will follow you, the people you see will behave differently, and the experience more similarly will reflect a reality tv show.
Instead, slip into some jeans. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going except for a few of the absolutely necessary facilitators. Take two or three from your security detail with you. Take your jet to Dilley, Texas. Dilley is a town of 4000 people about 80 miles Southwest of San Antonio. There’s a small airport eight miles away.
Dilley is home to one of America’s immigration detention centers. If you don’t want to go to Dilley, there are approximately 74 others to choose from.
Once there, spend the day following a pro bono attorney in the immigration detention facility. Sit in the holding cell with him/her. Hear the clients tell their stories. Look into their client’s eyes. Do your best to feel what they must feel. Try to put yourself in their situation. Why did they come? What are their motivations? Hear how our government has treated them. Ask them if they’ve broken any law while being in the U.S., other than being here illegally. Learn where their families are—their sons, daughters, spouses.
Then return to Trump tower, pondering what you’ve seen, and felt, and experienced. Continue building your government. But remember how we treat our neighbor is essential. How we treat those with less opportunity impacts our perspective.
There’s nothing like seeing the micro, to know how to build the macro.
David O. Leavitt
