The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington D.C. 20500
March 22, 2017
Dear President
Trump,
Fifty letters
ago, our family started writing you a letter every day. My wife and I partly undertook this to teach
our daughters to communicate in ways that are civil. It has not been easy for them or for us, but
words are very important. Words
matter. We want our daughters to
understand this.
As a businessman who wants to be known for
being skilled at the art of the deal, I suspect you think you know how to
communicate well.. I wanted to remind you, though, that if you use words
carelessly or deliberately in a way intended to confuse or distract people, you
will lose their trust.
That is already
happening. According to the Gallup Poll
Organization, your approval rating, which started out lower than any president since
Truman has dropped. It is currently
hovering in the low 40s and high 30s.
This means that on any given day only a third of Americans trust you as
President. I don’t say this to make you
feel bad, but to be able to make a suggestion on how you can perhaps hope to change
these results.
I think the
main reason for these low numbers may be the way you use words. I won’t quibble about truth and falsehoods –
there are plenty of fact-checkers doing that for you. Beyond that, part of the reason there is so
much distrust is that you do not speak clearly.
You tweet and speak publically in moments of anger and bravado. You go off script. You speak in circles sometimes without really
saying anything. This sometimes makes
you look foolish.
You also say
things that can be interpreted as being insulting. You spoke in a most uncivil way about
Congressman John Lewis. You have spoken
to the several world leaders in ways that have led them to tactfully imply that
you were confused (rather than saying you were insulting). This endangers our security as a country.
Sometimes you
say outrageous things, claiming without presenting any evidence that President
Obama was wiretapping you, for example.
Saying outrageous things is a good tactic for a reality television host
to stay in the limelight or for a presidential candidate to stay on the fornt
pages. As a sitting president, however,
you need to cut it out and start peaking like a responsible statesman.
If you want to
win back people’s trust, you need to start speaking clearly and carefully in
ways that edify people rather than hurting them. You need to make sure that what you are
saying is true and possible. You need to
consider how your audience will hear your words.
And if you
cannot do that – if you cannot control either your tongue or your impulse to
speak without thinking, I would encourage you to limit your public speaking
appearances as much as you can. Perhaps
find someone articulate in your administration to speak for you. If you cannot
do this, expect your approval rating to continue to slide and your inability to
bring even your own party into alignment with your goals to make it impossible
for you to accomplish anything.
Because I
oppose most of your policies and consider them unjust, I should perhaps let you
continue to be inarticulate and ineffective.
Honestly, though, I am an American who is embarrassed by my president
and cannot stay quiet about this.
I apologize if
this comes across as unkind. I can find
no way to say it but directly. I encourage
you to approach your responsibility to communicate with the American people
with thoughtful reflection.
Regards,
Bill
Boerman-Cornell
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