Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons under a CC-by-SA 2.0 license.
Dear Future Self,
This letter is dated December 3, 2016. It’s been almost a month since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. Before the election, you had some concerns about the wisdom of electing him President. Because of those concerns, you didn’t vote for him. As it turns out, he’s doing things that justify those concerns.
I’m writing this note so that you’ll have it clearly labeled for reference when you need it in 2018 and 2020. My earnest hope is that not too many of these notes will exist. However, I’m writing this one while he’s just President-elect. He hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet. Keep that in mind as I remind you of the following. Feel free to use this as evidence for why you are not inclined to vote for him or anyone that might enable him in the future.
Mr. Trump isn’t using the State Department’s advice before talking to foreign countries.
This link is to a news article showing China reacting to a phone call that Mr. Trump had with the President of Taiwan. It is in violation of U.S. standing diplomatic policy regarding not talking directly to Taiwan. We do this because China is a big country with a huge military and a good economy to back that military up. Diplomatic failures with them could theoretically result in some awful things happening, from cold wars to really hot nuclear ones.
The article also relates how Mr. Trump isn’t using the State Department to brief him on how to conduct diplomacy. Imagine having an entire segment of government dedicated to not screwing up good relations with other countries. All they think about is how to put us on the best foot with other countries, and they have a wealth of knowledge stored up from hundreds of years of service. The best part is that they’ll come to you and talk to you if you’re too busy to call, email, write, phone conference, messenger, instant messenger, bike messenger, carrier pigeon messenger, smoke signal, telegraph machine, fax, or use any other method of communication imaginable. They might even have one of those old school copying things like you had in school with the blue ink that smelled weird. But I digress.
He’s not using any of it. Rather than use that branch of government dedicated to diplomacy, he’s going to Twitter to brag about violating a long-standing policy. That reminds me of the other concern you had.
He’s already back on Twitter, and it’s just as bad as you thought it would be.
I cannot stress the fear and apprehension at watching a President-elect brag about pissing off a foreign power. Even if the country was small, this would still be frightening. But when the level of clear thinking is needed with regards to larger countries, this mistake makes zero sense. Instead of using time to allay fears of the majority of people that didn’t vote for him (I’m including everyone who did not cast a vote for him), he’s spending time pissing off a country.
Which reminds me, if the world has lost all sense and you’re able to influence Twitter, hopefully you’ll have deleted Mr. Trump’s account by then. You’ll be doing the world a favor. Remember back when you lived in West Germany and you were worried that the Soviets could initiate a nuclear holocaust if they wanted to? That was scary. I’m thinking “mortifying” might come close to describing starting a nuclear war with Twitter. So yeah, delete his account. Pretty please.
The short version, because we both know you probably won’t read the long version.
Trump isn’t using the State Department’s help to conduct diplomacy.
He’s bragging about sucking at diplomacy on Twitter.
China is the second country he’s ticked off, and he’s not even a real President yet.
“Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Hillary” might be a thing when you read this.
You’re Welcome,
Your Past Self
Amusing Nonsense 