Dear Mr. Trump,

Nothing reflects the pettiness of a man more – his childishness, his immaturity, his lack of any sense of decency, his inclination to live in the gutter – than how he mistreats others. Nothing underscores your pettiness more than the way you have acted toward Sen. John McCain following his death.

You nixed any possibility of the White House issuing a formal statement that recognizes Sen. McCain’s contributions to our country and his heroism. He served our country in war, risked his life, acted with honor throughout imprisonment, while you hid from service with fake bone spurs. And all you do now and all you have ever done is to belittle him.

You refused at first to allow the White House flag to fly at half-staff until Sen. McCain’s burial, again choosing to dishonor an American hero. You succumbed to political pressure to return the flag to half-staff, but it’s clear you were unhappy about doing so. Do you think that makes you a big man, “Sir”?

You’ve shown the American people your pathetic core, your small mind and heart, but the country is not buying into your pettiness.

Those who have stood with you throughout your tenure at the White House will be voted out of office, and you will follow them soon into ignominy.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump:

You praise Paul Manafort as a “good man,” revealing your utter disdain for the rule of law.

Why is it “good” that a man of wealth cheats his country by evading millions of dollars in taxes? His conduct – demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury that included your supporters – is abhorrent, not good. This is not a case of trying to take advantage of a tax loophole. This is a case of out and out lying about the millions of dollars he made.

Why is it “good” that a man of wealth submits fraudulent information to banks in loan applications? When banks are cheated, the whole country suffers. The banks hold our money, and if they lend it to the likes of Manafort on false pretenses, they may fail and we may never get our money back. That’s what you call “good”?

Was James Traficant, a Democratic representative from Ohio, “good” when he was convicted for cheating on his taxes and served seven years in federal prison? How about Harry Claiborne, a federal judge appointed by President Carter, impeached for tax evasion, convicted, and sent to prison? Was he “good” too in your view?

You think of people as “good” solely on the basis of whether they support you, regardless of the crimes they committed, are committing, and will commit.

As you continue your attempt to subvert democracy, rational and civic-minded people will oppose you and your supporters in Congress. The voters that install a Congress with the backbone to fight you when you flaunt the rule of law are the people who truly deserve to be called good.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump:

You chose well in picking Rudy as your personal counsel. He is undoubtedly as unbalanced as you are, so you’re a good fit. Now we know that “truth isn’t truth.” I translate that to mean that you won’t talk to Mr. Mueller because everything you say will be a lie.

We can imagine your criminal trial defense under such a harebrained advocate as Rudy: (1) the documentary evidence pointing to your campaign’s collusion with Russia was planted by Mark Fuhrmann, who is part of the deep state; (2) it was Hillary – not you — who complimented the Russians on hacking into her own emails; (3) Mr. Mueller is a closet Democrat because he was saddened by the assassination of JFK; and (4) so what if you colluded? Your base loves you, as do the “very fine people” you praised in the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party.

But I see from your comments to Reuters that you have an even better defense up your sleeve. You claim the power to undertake the Special Counsel’s investigation yourself! This is clear proof of your insanity. The only person who can judge you is you, because you’re the only one who counts in your delusional world.

Imagine! Hitler rises from the grave to investigate and prosecute Nazis at the Nuremberg trials! Imagine! O.J. Simpson takes over his prosecution for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend! Imagine! James Wilkes Booth rises from the grave to take over his prosecution for the assassination of President Lincoln.

Why didn’t you think of this earlier? Only one reason: you didn’t have Rudy as your closest advisor and defender.

Here’s a way of thinking of your presidency, your mental state, and that of your personal counsel: Lost in Space.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump:

You may not be aware of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, but please be advised: it provides freedom of speech to all Americans, not just those who praise and flatter you.

I know this is impossible for your megalomaniac and malignant narcissistic brain to comprehend, but it’s true, Sir. Preservation of the right to speak freely is most important – indeed, critical for the survival of our democracy – when it pertains to political issues such as the fitness – or, in your case, the lack of fitness – of a person to be president.

Therefore, when you punish people like Mr. John Brennan and others for speaking their minds critically about you, you violate the very Constitution that you swore to uphold. Obviously, an oath means nothing to you.

Mr. Brennan has been an honest and devoted public servant for his entire career, serving the CIA under both Republican and Democratic administrations. He spoke the truth when he called your behavior with Putin treasonous, but, even if he was in error, he has a right to express his opinion without being penalized by you.

Only the vilest of despots punish their critics. It’s a short step from what you’re doing now to shutting down newspapers you don’t like, imprisoning the reporters and others who speak critically of you, and, finally, sending your “Second Amendment people” after them. Hitler and Stalin did it, your friend Kim Jun Un is doing it, and you’re heading that way unless a responsible Congress can stop you.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

How sad it is that the people you bring closest to you have so little trust in you that they feel the need to tape-record your comments without your knowledge!

Take Omarosa, for example. You call her a “low-life” – in keeping with schoolyard bully character – but at one time she was a trusted advisor, or so you wanted us to believe. But she knew you, Sir, well enough to know you’d lie if it suited you.

Take Michael Cohen, for example. He knew you were a liar and thus recorded conversations with you. It’s not “inconceivable” at all, as you allege, but logical. The people who know you best know they deal with a sociopathic malignant narcissist who lies about everything.

Take James Comey, who you once praised before he refused to give you the “loyalty” that you demanded. He knew enough – when you asked him to go easy on Michael Flynn (he’s pleaded guilty to lying) – to immediately write a memorandum about your inappropriate request, such memorandum being admissible in court to prove that you did try to interfere with a criminal investigation and, thus, attempted to obstruct justice.

I wonder who else is recording your conversations right now to protect themselves from your inevitable lies.

Which leads me to another question: Why do the Republicans in Congress keep supporting you, despite your instability, lack of credibility, and support for despotism around the world? And why have voters kept these Republicans in office until now?

We can being to solve our problems at the voting booth. The midterm elections give Americans an opportunity for redemption and remediation, i.e., to put into a place a new, non-Republican Congress that will restrain you as Congress should have been doing all along.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

John Cassidy of The New Yorker reports (8/10/18), citing a from Quinnipiac University, “that [your] support among white voters without a college degree fell from fifty-seven per cent in June to forty-nine per cent in July, and that your “disapproval rating went from thirty-six per cent to forty-seven per cent.” Although you have previously quoted from Quinnipiac polls (or misquoted) when it suits you, please don’t despair at this latest demonstration that your popularity is shrinking. Just call it Fake News, Sir!

You have learned that your cult will disbelieve anything you call Fake News and that they now believe that the free press is the enemy of the American people. Indeed, your cult wants you to have the power to shut down The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and any other news outlet that has been even slightly critical of your chaotic and dangerous presidency. And when you urge “the Second Amendment people” to get involved, as you have done in the past and will do in the future, then reporters will be shot dead, and you will say “what a shame” and wink/wink, won’t you? There’s nothing like destroying American institutions to liven up your day, Sir. It’s your mission.

When the Mueller investigation indicts your son, and son-in-law, and Manafort for conspiring to break our election laws, you will call the indictment itself Fake News! And if a jury convicts the accused, you will call the verdict Fake News! too, won’t you? And if the voters in November push enough Republicans out of the House to give it back to Democratic control, you will deem that Fake News! as well and try to find ways to foil the election result. And a sickening percentage of Republicans will believe you.

Only a vast outpouring of Democratic voters – and continued shrinkage of that portion of the electorate that put you in office – can restrain your lunacy and restore honor to our democratic traditions. We will work unceasingly toward that end.

Bruce J. Berger

[this letter has political content]

Dear Mr. Trump,

At first, you wanted to hide the topic of the meeting at Trump Tower between your highest campaign staff, including your campaign manager (the accused bank-fraud artist and tax cheater Manafort), your son, and your son-in-law. Thus, you dictated a false news release, saying that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss adoptions, as if that was important enough for your campaign to tie up its highest echelon.

People don’t make up lies unless they fear the truth. You knew it was wrong for your campaign to seek help from a foreign government. It’s a crime. You don’t have to call it “collusion,” and whether you received the help you sought is beside the point.

18 USC 1349 says that “any person who attempts or conspires to commit any offense under this chapter shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the attempt or conspiracy.” I.e., the attempt itself is a crime subject to the same punishment as if the intended crime had been consummated. And if your crew at Trump Tower agreed among themselves to receive campaign help from a foreign government in the form of dirt on your opponent and took any steps in furtherance of that agreement – they did by attending the meeting – they are guilty of conspiracy. It’s clear that the Mueller investigation will include an indictment of those who attended the meeting, including your son, whose emails show he gleefully intended to obtain dirt on your opponent.

Now, you’ve admitted that very fact, that the meeting’s purpose was to get dirt on your opponent. Whether it’s done all the time, as you claim, it’s still a crime.

Finally, Sir, you still claim you didn’t know about the meeting. If it meeting was innocent, why do you try to distance yourself from it? The answer is obvious; you knew then and know now that the meeting was against the law.

Get yourself a better lawyer than that loudmouth Giuliani.

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

Sen. Van Hollen and many others were there and saw it firsthand. He observed “the dog kennel” in McAllen and “witnessed loads of kids massed together in large pens of chain-linked fence separated from their moms and dads.”

Who would expect otherwise from you and the Republicans in Congress? Images of children in cages are your legacy, Sir, and that of the Republican Party.

Then you sent their parents away – keeping the kids locked up – with no means of reuniting child with parent. As the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit against your administration has said, “for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child.”

Who would expect otherwise from you and the Republicans in Congress? The Republican Party thinks it’s the party of family values? That’s a sick joke.

In Leviticus 19:18, God orders us to love our neighbors as ourselves, but you love no one but yourself. In Deuteronomy 10:19, God commands us to love the stranger, but you want to put them in cages, hurt them, belittle them, and destroy them.

And the Republicans in Congress let you get away with it.

Those of us who care have only one remedy: to vote your supporters out of office.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

[yes, again, my letter has political content]

Dear Mr. Trump,

I wonder why you and your Republican colleagues have done nothing for the younger people in our country. In fact, I wonder why you all seem so hell bent on hurting that generation.

Not only haven’t you don’t anything to protect the environment, you and your Republican appointees have actively tried to worsen it. You deny climate change, e.g., and have pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accords, which just means that future generations will have an even greater burden just to survive on this planet. Big thanks, Mr. Trump. Big thanks, to your Republican supporters as well. Future generations are so grateful (not) for your concern.

You haven’t made the world safer, Sir, but you have put us to the brink of wars with foolish summits and tweets that do nothing. And the Republicans in Congress are protecting you from suffering the consequences of your treasonous acts.

You say that the economy is booming? The so-called good business report your White House has touted is simply a continuation of the long-term trend that began under President Obama. It’s a trend you haven’t wrecked yet, but you’re on course to wreck it. You’re about to plunge us into recession with your foolish tariffs, and the Republican Congress is spinelessly letting you do it.

Meanwhile, you’ve pushed our country into a trillion-dollar deficit while bestowing an enormous tax cut on the ultra-wealthy. And your Treasury Department is trying to cut billionaires’ taxes even more. The permanent corporate tax cut hasn’t flowed down to employees but gone into the pockets of the top 1 percent, i.e., those who own stocks.

You even want to suppress the ability of young people to vote by Draconian voter registration requirements.

I hope these young people whom you disrespect and whom you are hurting show up at the polls in the tens of millions to put your Republican colleagues in their rightful places this mid-term election: out of office.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

Your present hatchet man, Giuliani, says that Michael Cohen has no credibility, that it was well known that he’s lied all his life.

If Giuliani is believed, then that’s something you must have known when you hired Michael Cohen to run your dirty business errands and indeed it must be why you hired him in the first place, Mr. Trump. He would be exactly the kind of lawyer you could trust to handle your illegal affairs.

But even liars tell the truth when they need to. You’ve never felt the need to, I know, but Michael Cohen feels the need to now, and we should believe him. A jury will believe him. He will have tons of corroborating evidence to support his claim that you were well aware of the meeting at Trump Tower and approved it. He knows where this corroborating evidence is and can point Mueller directly to it.

So where does that leave you, Sir? Putting aside any criminal indictments that Mueller may bring – and I know that you plan to pardon yourself – the only recourse for Americans who care about our democracy is to get rid of the Republicans in Congress who protect you.

You cannot pardon yourself from impeachment.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

PS — Why don’t you ever respond to my letters? Are you afraid to, perhaps? Have nothing persuasive to say in response?