Dear Rest of the World,
Greetings from America where our president has threatened to commit ethnic cleansing in Gaza, challenged the sovereignty of our closest allies, issued an EO to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens, and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Trump has rescinded EO 14087, which lowered prescription drug costs for Medicare and Medicaid recipients. He withdrew the US from the World Health Organization, cutting off U.S. funding for global health initiatives, including pandemic preparedness, vaccine distribution, and disease eradication programs. And that is just the first four months.
We are in hell.
It is hard to even speak to our global friends about the horror in America, the horror that America is becoming to the world. That our president is turning us into an international villain is unspeakable. That he is alienating our trusted allies and imposing shocking tariffs on our international trade channels is anathema. That he cannot form complete sentences and rambles incoherently and posts unhinged middle-of-the-night rants on Truth Social (“Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’”) is so embarrassing, we can hardly get through an hour without another spike of shameful behavior that is punishingly cruel and shockingly stupid. We are horrified.
Please know that a huge portion of Americans did everything we could to keep him out of office again. We marched and rallied and registered voters and used every platform we have. We lost friends and family members over it, which continues to be a heartbreaking loss across America. While Trump screams that he won by a landslide, he certainly did not. Of the 245 million eligible US voters, only 65% voted. Which means Kamala received 30.6% of the possible vote and Trump received 31.4%. So less than a third of our country voted for him.
But we are all stuck in this dystopian nightmare now, including you, and we are so, so sorry. We are ashamed and scared. Every day brings a new shocking low. No sooner does he insult the Canadian Prime Minister by suggesting annexation, then he is on Truth Social ranting about Bruce Springsteen. Everything is so humiliating.
And destabilizing. If Trump was just a harmless dumb-dumb, we could muddle through. But he is a dangerous dumb-dumb; the very worst kind, a useful idiot in the hands of far more calculating, sinister actors. And because the GOP, with almost no exceptions, cares more about protecting their own power, there are no guardrails around him. They have the majority and are willing to overlook financial abuse, corruption, lawlessness, and truly catastrophic outcomes for the ordinary Americans they are supposed to represent. They dgaf. Accept a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar? Sure, why not.
The Emperor has no clothes and doesn’t give a shit.
Please don’t give up on us, world. There are millions over here fighting the good fight. Americans have filed more than 200 lawsuits against Trump’s agenda, and federal judges have issued more than 70 rulings impeding his efforts on a range of issues. We have worn out our phones calling our senators. Regular folks are delivering pleas and rebukes at school board meetings, town hall gatherings, legislative hearings. We are deeply organizing already for midterms next year. We haven’t let up on Trump a single second of a single day.
So many of us understand that our security and wellbeing is bound up with yours. We know this. We want the whole earth to be safer, more just, more free, not just us. We want you and your children to flourish too. “America First” doesn’t make any sense in a functioning global community. We understand that letting Nigerian children die of starvation in Dikwa because we cut all their food program funding isn’t just unspeakably evil, it is destabilizing for the world. We obviously get that dismantling the Justice Department’s anti-corruption units is a “going out of business bonanza for dictators, kleptocrats, crooked officials, and organized-crime leaders” in every country (Airmail News). Trump isn’t just cruel, he is foolish.
Our president despises vulnerable people and goodness and mercy and cooperation, but most of us don’t. We remain stunned at his cruelty and ignorance. You’d think we would be used to this by now, but somehow every day is still astounding. We’ve never watched an American president raze democracy, decency, intelligence, and civil rights with such speed and unchecked power.
Thank you for your kindness. Your messages of solidarity and compassion have moved us. Thank you for your resistance to Trump; his ego is hopelessly fragile and hearing consistent disrespect from the rest of the world breaches the echo chamber he has built around himself. He thinks the world “loves and respects him” until you assure him you do not. This bothers him. He is predictable and easy to trigger.
We are hoping to survive the next three and half years without losing our country and irreparably harming yours. In the meantime, please know that so many Americans are fighting from the inside over here, and we love and respect our global friends. We love your countries and families and businesses; hell, you are our business partners across nearly every industry. Your suffering and success matters to us. We hope this nightmare comes to an end soon and we can begin the hard work of rebuilding our reputation, friendship, and trustworthiness with you again.
In the meantime, remember us, friends. Women have lost autonomy over our own bodies, our origin story of colonization and slavery is being scrubbed from our museums and textbooks, and our small businesses are being put out of commission by tariffs. Thank you for supporting us as we fight fascism. Not all of us over here have lost our souls.
In grief and solidarity,
A Bunch of us in America