Dear President-elect Donald J. Trump: We caught your press conference Wednesday, where in your inimitable style, you touched upon a variety of topics, including how you were going to separate yourself (but not really) from the international business empire that you’ve built, how journalists who raise tough questions may find themselves accused of being “fake news” and how you’re going to replace the Affordable Care Act with a health care system that’s going to be really, really good (even if you haven’t provided any of the important details).
You gave the nation plenty to think about, positions that deserve more in-depth examination, including your fondness for a nation (Russia) that even you now acknowledge hacked its way into the American election process. We’d like to revisit all of that at a later time. You are, after all, about to become president of the United States, a country that hasn’t lost its greatness, in our opinion, even if that notion runs counter to your campaign rhetoric.
But there was a comment you made that merits immediate attention. It had to do with the states that went your way in the election. You said, “We focused very hard in those states and they really reciprocated. And those states are going to have a lot of jobs and they’re going to have a lot of security, they’re going to have a lot of good news for their veterans.”
The implication here is that the states that didn’t end up on your side of the ledger, who wound up supporting Hillary Clinton, may find themselves with no reward, or worse, punished. That list includes, of course, Massachusetts, where 60 percent of voters backed Clinton and 33 percent Trump.
And your tweets Friday add to our concern about you beginning your tenure not as a statesman but as a settler of scores. “Based on the information they had she should never have been allowed to run — guilty as hell,” you tweeted of Clinton. “They were VERY nice to her. She lost because she campaigned in the wrong states — no enthusiasm!”
We recognize that rewarding one’s supporters is part of politics for Republicans and Democrats alike. And we understand that you value loyalty above many other qualities. And you’re willing to reward such loyalty — for instance by nominating Jeff Sessions, who was the first U.S. senator to endorse your candidacy, to be the U.S. attorney general.
But you’re no longer the “star” of a scripted television show or a businessman operating exclusively in the private sector. You are about to become president of the United States, and one of the obligations you have is to represent all of its citizens, regardless of how they voted.
And even though there are plenty of Americans who might claim that you’re not their president, you should be taking the higher road here, a leadership role that doesn’t include pettiness or vindictiveness. You will soon take an oath to serve them, too.
Look to Abraham Lincoln, who had to deal with a divided nation and the Civil War that was its bloody result. Lincoln might have been tempted to punish the secessionist states. Yet during his second inauguration and with the war still raging, Lincoln spoke not of revenge. He said, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Mr. president-elect, you would do well to gaze not only upon your victorious image but on the example set by many of the men who held this office before you. Please set aside grudges and act for the common good. Only in that way can you fulfill your pledge to bring us all together.
Sincerely,
Some of your fellow citizens