Friday, February 10, 2017

No More Rude Phone Calls to Heads of State, Please


President Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington D.C. 20500
10 February 2017 

Dear President Trump, 

An article in the Washington Post two days ago (Feb 8) summarizes your phone conversations with foreign heads of state.  It speaks of some successful calls, including one to China which has set a good tone for your relationship with them, but also describes several calls that were rude or contentious (Australia, France, Mexico, Pakistan, and others).   

In your discussions with foreign countries, particularly those that are our allies (Australia, France, and Mexico, for example), can you please treat them with the respect and dignity that they accord us?  To do less than that is to endanger the progress that statesmen from both US political parties have committed their lives to.   

In your discussions with foreign countries that we are not on good terms with, can you please tread carefully? There is no sense in antagonizing countries like North Korea or China.  It may well be that North Korea, for example, does not have a missile capable of reaching the US at this time as you mentioned publically last week, but they can easily reach South Korea, a country we have been allied with for some time. Taunting North Korea puts our friends in South Korea at risk. 

I am not a diplomat.  I am just a guy . But even I can see that the behavior you have shown toward other nations is unreasonable.  As one of the most powerful countries in the world, we can afford to show some gracefulness to the other countries.  Since you are our representative, it behooves you to show evidence of that grace in the way you speak. 

Please consider this. 

Regards, 

Bill Boerman-Cornell

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