Dear Mr. Trump,

All we hear from you are words. You say that you would consider reasonable additional gun controls. But what are you doing?

Did you call Paul Ryan and tell him that you expected him to put bills on the floor immediately?

Did you call Mitch McConnell and tell him the same?

Did you do anything yet, except fail to act?

You know exactly what it means to push legislation. It didn’t seem you had a problem pushing your so-called tax-reform. But I see no ACTIONS on reasonable gun controls.

No one will believe you’re sincere, Sir, until you TAKE ACTION.

If you don’t want to take action, then, ultimately, we – the American citizens disgusted by your inaction and the perfidious NRA – will move to repeal the Second Amendment.

So here is what will happen if you don’t ACT:

The 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution

The 2nd Amendment is hereby annulled.  The Congress shall have the sole power, by appropriate legislation, to restrict, outlaw, or encumber the manufacture, marketing, sale, and ownership of firearms, other provisions of this Constitution notwithstanding.

There goes your supposed God-given right to own a gun.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

As much as I know how you love my letters, particularly when they try to be humorous, this letter will not be funny. This letter will be dead serious. Dead, as in 17 innocent people, 17 shot to death by an AR-15. When you mentioned this tragedy, you somehow forgot to mention the gun. Didn’t you hear that the AR-15 used in this massacre shot off 150 rounds in seven minutes?

A survivor of the shooting has said, according to the New York Daily News, “To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you! According to the New, the NRA spent more than $30 million 2016 to help you win the White House, but you see no shame in that. You’ve never felt shame for anything you’ve done or said, for any slur, for any lie.

Let’s be clear who’s responsible, Sir. You are. You’ve done nothing to advance reasonable gun controls. Instead, you’ve done the opposite. As soon as you came into office, you rescinded a proposed rule that would have the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is used for gun sales, access to Social Security Administration data including the names of individuals receiving certain federal mental health benefits. According to snopes.com, this would have “prevented an estimated 75,000 people with mental disorders from being able to purchase a firearm.” Well, if one of those is in jail now, that still leaves 74,999 at large, still able to get their hands on an AR-15. That’s just the way you and the NRA like it. From your point of view, Sir, let the money from the sales of these murder weapons keep rolling in.

Look at the faces of the people whose lives were lost through the barrel of an AR-15. Then try to sleep.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

You sly dog, you! How clever, Sir, to get your lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay $130,000 of “his own money” to pay off Stormy Daniels because, supposedly, you didn’t really have an affair with her.

He carefully said that you did not reimburse him directly or indirectly, but I wonder how many tens of millions of dollars he’s received from you for legal fees over the years and how many tens of millions of dollars he expects to receive from you in legal fees in the future, and I wonder about the promises you made to him in return for his paying “his own money” to silence Ms. Daniels.

He claims that he paid her, clearly on your behalf, even though you did not have an affair with her. Of course! Why not pay someone you didn’t have an affair with?

Let’s see. There are 194,000,000 women between the ages of 18-64 who live in the United States, per the 2010 census. So maybe that leaves 193,999,960 with whom you didn’t have sex. Why not pay each of them – oh, I mean, have your lawyer pay each of them with his own money – a nice stipend of $130,000? That would come up to roughly $25.2 trillion dollars. That would surely make America great again!

Have a great day, Sir.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

How foolish you are, Sir, to want to spend tens of millions of dollars on a military parade in Washington, DC. That money could be better spent, don’t you think? Perhaps you could use the money to provide better medical care to our veterans?

Plus, why put our soldiers’ lives at risk just for your own entertainment? Accidents happen during maneuvers. As military.com has recently reported: “In all branches of the armed forces, at least 56 service members have been killed or injured in non-combat incidents since the beginning of June.” Do you want to risk more soldiers dying – unnecessarily – so you can watch a military parade like your friend Putin? Like your idol, Adolf Hitler? Military maneuvers should occur solely in service of our nation’s legitimate military objectives instead of your babyish desire to watch a show and brag.

Here’s an idea for you, Sir. May I please buy you a set of plastic soldiers? Like this one:

[picture of set of 144 plastic soldiers available on Amazon]

You can set them up in the Situation Room of the White House. Since they’re plastic, they won’t hurt the nice conference table. Then you can go “Bam!” and “Crash!” and knock over as many as you like and have fun doing so. Plus, the more you play with toy soldiers, the better off our real soldiers will be. Please give it thought, Sir. I am serious. I will send these to you if you want them.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

I see that some Americans think you’re doing a better job because you’ve pushed through a tax cut. What happens, though, when these tax cuts expire and chunks of their pay go missing to help fund the corporate tax deductions? According to the Tax Policy Center, by 2027, all but the highest income families will owe more federal taxes than they did before passage of the new tax laws. You don’t care about that, though, do you? When the taxes of most Americans go up in nine years as compared to the situation prior to the recent changes, yours won’t. Your fat income, Sir – sustained by Putin and the Russian oligarchs under his control – will continue to be protected.

Every intelligent person understands that your tax law is a rip-off of future generations and a rip-off of the poor in favor of the ultra-wealthy. Every intelligent person understands that your tax cut creates a greater chance that the U.S. will default on its loans in the near future for lack of revenue. The Russians, who control you like a puppet on a string, salivate at the thought.

But here’s an idea, Sir, if you and your apologizers think I’m wrong. Why don’t you release your tax returns to prove me wrong?

If you’re so noble, so truly motivated by concern for the common working man and woman, let’s see how your tax law deals with your own income, both legal and illegal money-laundering income.

(Oh, wait. You don’t and never have paid taxes on that Russian money-laundering income? So those taxes don’t exist and are not affected?)

Still, you must have a few million dollars of legal income. Show us those returns, and we’ll understand your true motivations, Sir. Release those returns now.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

I ignored your speech last night, Sir, not wanting to hear your lies with my own ears, not wanting even to look at you, because, when I do, I see only the person who wants to make American white again (as if it ever was). I see the person who praised Judge Moore, the child molester. I see the person who bragged about his own sexual assaults against women. I see the person who denigrate people on the basis of their religious beliefs and sexual identity and skin color. I see the person who praises Nazis and the Klan as “very fine people.” I see the person who cheated repeatedly on his wives. I see the person who threatens the world, through his childish behavior, with imminent nuclear war. And I ask myself whether I need to see more of you, Sir.

But not listening to the speech hasn’t stopped from finding out about the outrageous things you said. E.g., your bragging about “30,000,000 tax cut bonuses.” That’s 30,000,000 lies.

You and your Republic buddies – who put billions in the pockets of you and your billionaire friends – didn’t magically create more money. The companies who allegedly paid these bonuses didn’t suddenly become more efficient. So where does the money come from? You didn’t tell the American public that it comes from the poor, whose support you are simultaneously cutting, or that it reduces the amount of money available to spend on our military. You didn’t tell the American public or the recipients of these so-called bonuses that this is just borrowed money and that we – and our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren – will all have to pay it back, with interest.

So, if I’d stayed awake last night to watch something, I would much rather have watched a snake-oil salesman. Or, a snake, for that matter. At least a snake understand what is, Sir.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

I write letters to our country’s enemy,

Trying to charm my friends with humor.

I stalk the ether of the Internet

With contempt for the liars and hypocrites

And pour all I have into sarcasm.

I never wrote more important words,

And now beg my readers to bear witness.

Vote out the tyrants, the haters, and

Put away forever those who say

The Klan are some very fine people.

Dear Mr. Trump,

I hear, Sir, that our government has spent $24 million to install new, larger refrigerators and freezers on Air Force One. I also read in the Washington Post that these will accommodate 3,000 meals. Now, really, I know you have a hearty appetite and you want plenty of extra food on board for you and your billionaire friends – lobster, caviar, champagne for the drinkers, gallons of Diet Coke for you – but do you think that perhaps $24 million for a freezer or two is a bit excessive?

More than one out of every five children live in poverty in the United States today. Think of how much food that $24 million might have bought for them.

And can it be true that the amount of food that was available for Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama is not enough for you, Sir?

Eat up, Sir. Have a great meal (or two, or three, or four, or 10 a day) on us and our children.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

I hear that Robert Mueller needs to talk to you as part of his investigation. As you know, he is a Republican of the highest moral character, well-respected by the people who know him and have worked with him. I hear also that you “look forward” to speaking with him under oath. So, should you in fact talk to him? Under oath, even?

I think, sadly, the answer is no. You should be afraid because of your past deeds and your propensity to lie. You are who you are. You’re not going to evade responsibility for what you’ve done and the things you’ve said by trying to outsmart someone, notwithstanding the “stable genius” that you claim yourself to be. He’s got the goods on you, for sure. Every prosecutor waits until the trap is set before stalking the main prey. That tempting piece of cheese you see inside – the idea that you’re going to get off clean – is an illusion, a piece of bait.

My best advice to you is to claim the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. It would be a historic moment for the presidency, and would mesh nicely with your love of making history. You promised to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and how better might you do that than by standing firm on the Fifth Amendment?

Political consequences? Don’t worry about them. Your base will love it; they’ll see it as a thumb in the eye of the special prosecutor. You didn’t worry about political consequences when you promised to release your tax returns and then did not. So what if the fake-news media thinks you’re hiding something? Better to keep that stuff hidden. Better not to incriminate yourself by opening your mouth, Sir.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

The long, painful, exasperating, terrifying first year of your presidency has come to an end. You’ve denigrated our country’s standing in the world, brought us to the brink of a nuclear war, antagonized our enemies and friends, made war on millions because of their religion, applauded the Nazi’s and racists who marched in Charlottesville as “some very fine people,” and that only begins a litany of your misdeeds. You’ve lied, been petulant, obstructed justice, named incompetents to the federal bench, colluded with the Russians in their interference with the 2016 presidential election, subverted health care for millions of Americans, pushed through a tax cut for the wealthiest – for which the poor and the middle class will ultimately have to pay – and done everything possible to promote global warming and to otherwise destroy the environment. You’ve shut down the government, again, by lying that you’d accept any compromise deal on the Dreamers that was brought to you and then by rejecting such a deal out of hand, calling African countries “s++thole countries.” And the list goes on.

The fact that we still have a country and a functioning democracy is a miracle, no thanks to you, Sir. In the coming year, you’ll do all you can to make things worse for democracy and the vast majority of our population.

But we lasted out this year, and with God’s help, we’ll survive until we voters delete every vestige of “Trumpism” from the annals of our country.

After a year, I thought this might be my last letter to you, Sir, but my readers encourage me to keep on, so I will.

[To you, my readers during this past year, be strong, be strong, and strengthen each other!]

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger