Dear Mr. President, Part II

We have received your email.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts with President Donald J. Trump.

The willingness of the American people to stay informed is essential to our enduring democracy.  Please know that President Trump will never stop fighting for the citizens of our great Nation!

For additional information about President Trump’s policy initiatives or current events at the White House, please visit www.WhiteHouse.gov.​

On most days I write a letter to either the White House or to my Congressman and Senators. I usually receive some sort of reply. It's important to let them know my opinions in real time before the next outrage of the day takes over the news cycle and my attention. 

March 11, 2025

Dear Mr. President,
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Seriously President Trump, were you actually hocking Tesla automobiles in front of the White House? This is a new low, even for you. Just one billionaire helping a fellow billionaire, I guess. Too bad most Americans can’t afford the price of a new Tesla. Knowing your disdain for electric vehicle mandates it seems very disingenuous to purchase one. But of course, this was a favor for a friend. But it won’t play well in middle America where fair play and an even playing field still mean something.
 
Your vulgar display of favoritism shown to Elon Musk and his Tesla Corporation shows that you are not above using the White House and the office of the Presidency to personally benefit yourself and your friends.  My only conclusion is that your administration will pick winners and losers, and that the economy will be driven by favoritism. This is ethically and morally wrong, but that hasn’t stopped you in the past from acting.
By the way, I won’t shut up about the price of eggs.
 
March 12, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations, your trade war has begun. Now it is time to wield your presidential superpowers and decide who receives one of your golden “Get Out of Tariffs Free” cards. As demonstrated by your endorsement of Tesla, you are more than willing to pick winners and losers.

The retaliatory tariffs imposed by Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union will hurt a variety of private businesses and entire industries across the country. Now the process of exempting favored businesses will begin in earnest.  The main issue that I have with the exemption process is that it is opaque, often arbitrarily applied, and could easily be influenced by political favoritism. I wonder if one of the main drivers of your love affair with tariffs is the influence it gives you over friends and foes.
Once the exemption process begins the line of supplicants willing to grovel at your feet will stretch out from the Oval Office. These reeks of crony capitalism and is why many Americans don’t trust the federal government and view it with distain. 
 
March 13, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations Mr. President, the new administrator of The Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, has just identified another government agency that your administration can eliminate, his own.
Yesterday Mr. Zeldin announced that the E.P.A. would unwind dozens of protections against air and water pollution. He wants his agency to ease restrictions on carbon dioxide and mercy emissions from power plants, diminish tailpipe emission standards, overturn regulations that protect wetlands and other waterways, and take away the E.P.A.’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.  

Mr. Zeldin has said that the E.P.A.’s mission is to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business”. That mission can easily be handled by an existing agency such as Commerce, Energy, or the Small Business Administration. But Mr. Zeldin won’t have to fret about being out of a job. He will be able to quickly get a lucrative job lobbying for the oil and gas industry.
Mr. President, I know that you are a lame duck, but you certainly care about your legacy and the country that you will leave to your children and grandchildren. If you have any doubt about the impacts from weak or unenforced environmental regulations, I suggest that you visit Delhi, India or the industrial regions of China. Being a native of New York I know that you don’t have to be reminded of the tragedy of Love Canal.
 In order to “Make America Great Again” you must first keep America beautiful.
 
March 16, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

You campaigned on the pledge to keep the United States out of foreign wars. But from the start of your 2nd term, you have gotten us into two.  The first is the ongoing international trade war and the 2nd, which is news to most people, is the war with Venezuela.
On Friday you issued an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 which allows for the deportation of people from countries at war with the U.S. In the executive order you declared that you were targeting Venezuelan gang members for arrest and deportation. Therefore, the U.S. must be at war with Venezuela.
I was happy to learn that cooler heads prevailed over the weekend when a federal judge ordered your administration to cease using the wartime law to deport Venezuelans without a hearing.
 
March 17, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

The executive order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) instructs all federal government agency heads to ensure that DOGE has full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems. This means that Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have access to citizens’ Social Security records, tax returns, medical records from Medicare and Medicaid, student loan documents, military records, and records from many other federal programs.

I for one don’t trust DOGE or Elon Musk to safeguard this data or to prevent it from being used to benefit themselves or the Trump Administration. This is potentially the greatest breech of Americans’ personal data in history.

What assurances can you provide me and other Americans that our personal data will be safeguarded?
 
March 18, 2025 

Dear Mr. President, 

I was deeply disturbed to learn that DOGE and the F.B.I. entered the headquarters of the U.S. Institute of Peace and evicted its officials. Need I remind you that this agency is a congressionally chartered nonprofit that is not part of the executive branch?

This action by DOGE and your administration is an illegal takeover of a private nonprofit corporation. This is un-American and throws cold water over our democracy. Has DOGE become the equivalent of the brown shirt thugs used by Hitler to do his bidding? 

I don’t know where this ends Mr. President, but if you continue along this path the U.S.A. will never see its 250th anniversary.
 
March 19, 2025
 
Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to comment on your recent social media post in which you proclaimed that the pardons from President Biden to the congressional committee investigating the Capitol riot are void because they were signed with an autopen instead of by his own hand. To quote you, “In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them, but more importantly, he did not know anything about them”.
First of all, there is no law governing a presidential use of an autopen. Your lawyers know this and so should you. But more importantly, you showed contempt for common decency and spread a vicious lie which will be taken as truth by your supporters. This will further erode faith in our government and chip away at the foundation of our democracy. But that’s been your plan all along.
Say hello to your fellow traveler Putin for me!
 
April 1, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

On the eve of your historic “liberation day” for the implementation of tariffs, it is important to remember the speech given by President Reagan before he imposed tariffs on certain Japanese imports back in the 1980s.

My fellow Americans:
As perhaps you've heard, last week I placed new duties on some Japanese products in response to Japan's inability to enforce their trade agreement with us on electronic devices called semiconductors. Now, imposing such tariffs or trade barriers and restrictions of any kind are steps that I am loath to take. And in a moment I'll mention the sound economic reasons for this: that over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. But the Japanese semiconductors were a special case. We had clear evidence that Japanese companies were engaging in unfair trade practices that violated an agreement between Japan and the United States. We expect our trading partners to live up to their agreements. As I've often said: Our commitment to free trade is also a commitment to fair trade.
 
But you know, in imposing these tariffs we were just trying to deal with a particular problem, not begin a trade war.  We want to do this, because we feel both Japan and the United States have an obligation to promote the prosperity and economic development that only free trade can bring.
 
For those of us who lived through the Great Depression, the memory of the suffering it caused is deep and searing. And today many economic analysts and historians argue that high tariff legislation passed back in that period called the Smoot-Hawley tariff greatly deepened the depression and prevented economic recovery.
 
You see, at first, when someone says, ``Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,'' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works -- but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is: First, homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then, while all this is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So, soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs.
 
The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties made me determined when I came to Washington to spare the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity. Now, it hasn't always been easy. There are those in this Congress, just as there were back in the thirties, who want to go for the quick political advantage, who will risk America's prosperity for the sake of a short-term appeal to some special interest group, who forget that more than 5 million American jobs are directly tied to the foreign export business and additional millions are tied to imports. Well, I've never forgotten those jobs. And on trade issues, by and large, we've done well. In certain select cases, like the Japanese semiconductors, we've taken steps to stop unfair practices against American products, but we've still maintained our basic, long-term commitment to free trade and economic growth.
 
Note: The President spoke at 12:06 p.m. from Camp David, MD.  04/25/1987
 
April 2, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations, your “Liberation Day” for America was a big flop. Stock markets are crashing around the world and stock futures in this country are predicting a bloodbath in the markets on Thursday. The world is in a full-fledge trade war, and you are responsible.

You have apparently forgotten the lessons of the Great Depression when restrictive tariffs were implemented by our government. The result was a deeper and more prolonged economic depression.  You want the American people to be patient, promising that manufacturers will come back to the U.S. and flood the economy with cash. That is a pipe dream. It takes years for companies to overhaul business plans, build factories, and develop new supply chains. In the meantime, investment portfolios of ordinary Americans have taken a big hit, upending the retirement plans of millions of Americans. Consumer confidence has plunged, resulting in declining spending and slowing economic activity.

Your economic advisors should all be fired.
 
April 5, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

It is curious that you recently fired several White House National Security Council members shortly after meeting with Laura Loomer. Apparently, these individuals were fired for not being loyal enough to you or your agenda. It is your right to fire these people, but your timing couldn’t be worse.  These firings come on the heals of the massive security breach by the NSA using the messaging app “Signal”.
Your defense secretary texted sensitive plans on upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a Signal chat group that included a journalist.  National Security Advisor Mike Waltz inadvertently included the journalist to the chat, exposing military secrets which put military personnel at risk and threatened the success of the mission.

This episode exposed the incompetence of your administration’s national security leadership. The lies and blame shifting by Secretary Pete Hegseth and other members of your administration only made the matter worse.

Please explain to the American people what steps your administration is taking to address this national security breach. Firing some NSA officials for being “disloyal” is not the answer. The correct course of action is to fire Pete Hegseth and/or Mike Waltz. 
 
April 7, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing in opposition to your tariff policies. I believe that in the end they will harm the U.S. consumer and the overall economy of our country. I know that you don’t agree with this, but tariffs are a tax on the U.S. consumer. The producer and foreign country from which the product is shipped doesn’t pay the tariff. It is the importer or buyer within our country that pays the tariff, and to recoup the cost of the tariff they must increase prices to the end user. In this case the U.S. consumer.

The whole point of tariffs is to make the price of U.S. produced goods more competitive with foreign made goods. Without the foreign competition, prices on U.S. products will tend to increase. Coupled with higher priced foreign goods this leads to inflation, the very thing you promised to decrease.

You consider all trade deficits with foreign countries to be bad, but in many cases they are beneficial. It doesn’t benefit our country to produce low value items that require high labor inputs. Should the U.S. be producing all our clothing and every widget and gadget sold in Walmart and on Amazon? This would be a very inefficient use of our capital and labor. We don’t need low wage factory jobs in this country, not to mention the fact that we don’t have the labor required. Let Vietnam, China and other countries with cheap labor produce the low tech, low margin products so that we can focus on high end manufacturing, design and engineering, 21st century technologies such as advance computer chips, AI, robotics, advanced health care, biotechnologies, aerospace and other industries vital to our safety and security.  We can’t and shouldn’t produce everything that our consumer-driven economy demands.

You falsely equate all trade deficits as economic disadvantages. But consider this; If I pay a landscaper $500 to do some yard work for me, I have a $500 trade deficit in relation to him. I have given the landscaper $500 to render a service, but that does not put me at an economic disadvantage, I have gained a valuable service. The same goes for a foreign purchase that I make on vacation for an item only produced in that country. I am at a trade deficit with that foreign merchant because he hasn’t purchased an equivalent amount of goods or services from me. That doesn’t mean that the merchant took advantage of me, I entered freely into the transaction.

The uncertainty of your messaging on tariffs has rattled financial markets around the world, frayed relations with all our trading partners, and has been a gut punch to consumer confidence. We all need clarity on whether the tariffs are simply a negotiating tactic like in 2017 or are a permanent economic policy that the world will need to adjust to. Please reconsider your tariff policies before they do lasting damage to our economy and that of the world.
 
April 12, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for exempting smartphones, computers and other electronics from your reciprocal tariffs. This move, in addition to your recently announced 90 day pause on most tariffs, is a step in the right direction.

I don’t agree with your tariff policy, and I am convinced that it will end up costing U.S. consumers more than the revenue generated. I don’t agree with Elon Musk very often, but I do agree with his stance that tariffs are bad for business. I also think that your trade advisor Peter Navarro has led you astray and should be fired.

To bring sanity to your current tariff gambit you must bring certainty. Businesses will not invest in such uncertain times. Negotiating trade deals with hundreds of countries will take years, and the economies of the world cannot wait. Fire Navarro, admit that your tariff policies were misguided, allow trade negotiations to continue, but stop all tariffs now. You will be seen as a reasonable and bold leader. Otherwise, you will go down in history as the president who wrecked the world’s economy!
 
 
April 14, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Your executive orders to expand the mining and use of coal are not a step forward for the country, they are a giant step backwards. Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels and is more expensive than other available energy sources.

The use of coal has dropped significantly in the U.S. as utilities have switched to cheaper and cleaner energy sources to produce electricity. You are out of touch with the rest of the world when it comes to coal. It is the past, not the future. It is highly unlikely that utility companies will build new cold fired plants, and existing ones are getting older and more expensive to run. Even if you are unconcerned with the environmental impact of burning coal, using coal as an energy source doesn’t make economic sense.

For once please look beyond the politics of an issue like coal and do the right thing for the country and future generations.
 
April 15, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

My wife and I don’t have cable TV and get a lot of our news and entertainment programing through public broadcasting. PBS and NPR are beloved institutions within our household. They provide unbiased professional journalism, and world class programs on art, history, music and science. The educational programing provided on PBS is unsurpassed, and the programing on travel, food and culture brings us closer to communities around the world.

I live near a major metropolitan area so federal cuts may not be the death nail to the public television and radio stations that enrich my life. Not so for many rural communities across our country. Many stations which service rural areas will close because of federal funding cuts, diminishing the news and entertainment options for millions of Americans.  

Cutting funding to public broadcasting is not making America great again. It is a partisan attack on excellent broadcasting which has been caught up in the cross hairs of the GOP’s anti-woke, and anti-American campaign. Ask your children and grandchildren what they think of the programming on PBS, not a bunch of out of touch congress members.
 
April 16, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to urge you to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. from El Salvador immediately. Several years ago, he received an immigration protection called withholding of removal after the Department of Homeland Security decided that he was not a danger to the security of the U.S., allowing him to stay.
There is no proof that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist or member of the MS-13 gang as you have declared. He has never even been convicted of a crime in this country. Your Justice Department called Abrego Garcia’s deportation an “oversight” and “administrative error” in a court filing. On April 10, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. government had to “facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador”.

You are now defying court orders and playing games with the law by saying you have no authority to have Abrego Garcia released and brought back to this country. The president of El Salvador is your friend and would jump at your command. You claim to be the most powerful man in the world, so exercise some strength and courage. Abrego Garcia could be back in this country within hours if you snapped your fingers and everyone knows it.

Americans and the world are watching this blatant abuse of power.
 
April 17, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

With all the pressing issues facing your administration why are you wasting valuable time and government resources going afford Harvard and other institutions of higher learning? This makes very little sense to the average American and does nothing to solve inflation and the high cost of living, things that you campaigned on.

Let’s face it. Going after Harvard University is a vanity project, not to mention an abuse of power. You claim that Harvard is defying your orders to eliminate DEI from admissions, curriculum and hiring. Even if this dubious claim was true, you have no Constitutional authority to tell a private institution such as Harvard how to conduct their day-to-day business. Just because you may disagree with some of their practices doesn’t give you the right to threaten them with financial retaliation if they don’t bend to your whims. This is America, not an autocracy!

You also claim that legal protests on Harvard’s campus protesting the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israel military is somehow antisemitic. Even if this was true, college students, like all Americans have the right to free speech even if that speech opposes your agenda or point of view.  You equate all pro-Palestinian speech as terrorist speech, which couldn’t be further from the truth. It is hard to imagine any human being who isn’t sympathetic to the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza whose lives have been ruined and whose territory destroyed at the hands of the Israelis. I feel for the Palestinian people and want the wanton destruction of Gaza to stop immediately. That doesn’t make me a supporter of Hamas or any other terrorist group.

Do not trample on the free speech rights of students and use it as a pretext to punish their universities. This is a blatant abuse of power and one that you will not win. If you continue down this path of infringing on the civil rights of American citizens, it will destroy your presidency, and your legacy will be tarnished for all time.
 
April 19, 2024

Dear Mr. President,

For the sake of financial market stability and the continued independence of the Federal Reserve, please don’t fire Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. He has done a great job keeping unemployment low and preventing inflation from getting out of control. If politics is allowed to influence the policies of the Fed. the confidence in the U.S. dollar will be shaken, triggering the beginning of the end to the dollar as a reserve currency.
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I understand that you want Chairman Powell to lower interest rates in order to boost the economy, but that will only lead to higher inflation. Don’t forget that the people voted for you to lower inflation.  It is in the best interest of the economy and your legacy to keep Chairman Powell in place and to maintain an independent Federal Reserve. 

Keep Writing Your Elected Officials. Your Voice Matters! 

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Thanks,
Armchair American