Dear President Trump:
In 2016, I did not vote for you even though you were the nominee of my party, The Conservative Party of New York.
I could not bring myself to pull the lever because of the bad impressions you made after meetings we had in the 1970s and in the 1990s.
In the 1970s, I was a guest of your father at several East Side Conservative Club dinners. During those events, I realized you had nothing to say about politics or government affairs.
But when I was running the Port Authority in the 1990s, I got a real measure of you.
You came up to my office at the World Trade Center to meet with the New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation to discuss with him the proposed expansion of the Atlantic City Highway that you opposed.
You arrived 20 minutes early and the Commissioner arrived 40 minutes late. That left you and me together for an hour.
Frankly, it was the longest hour of my life. It was obvious you had no interest in the restructuring policies that were being implemented at the Port Authority. From the few comments you did make, I concluded you were an ignoramus. I remember wondering if you had ever read a book.
After you became president, your obnoxious behavior confirmed my 1990s impressions. Yet, despite your incredible character flaws, I supported many of your administration’s policies.
I was very pleased with the regulatory reforms, tax cuts, and foreign policy initiatives—particularly the withdrawal from the Iranian deal.
And then there were the courts. The 200-plus judges you nominated were excellent.
But every time you had a policy success, you had a need to self-destruct.
Instead of letting, for example, the tax cuts be the focus of news stories, you would have to say something outrageous, and those comments would dominate the news, not the tax cuts.
At the outset of the COVID pandemic, you forfeited the opportunity for your administration to shine. Instead of Vice President Pence and the professionals being the public voices, you insisted on being that voice. And you blew it big time.
Your daily rambling sessions and endless fights with national reporters were embarrassing and quickly wore thin with the American public.
You proved that you were a narcissist who could not share the limelight with your knowledgeable COVID team. I don’t know how they kept straight faces during those press conferences.
Despite your constant screw-ups, you still could have won in November. I, for one, voted for you in 2020 because I feared the radical leftists that dominate the Democratic Party.
Instead of making the election about their radical agenda, you made the election about you.
As a result, suburbanites, many of whom liked your accomplishments, voted for Biden because they couldn’t stand four more years of your persona.
That voting shift cancelled out the gains you made in Mexican, Cuban, and Venezuelan communities and cost you the election.
Since you lost, you have been a public embarrassment. Your election lawyers were a bunch of knuckleheads.
Your false charges about stolen votes, and your calls for Georgia’s governor and secretary of state—both Republicans—to resign, were ludicrous.
As for the Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs, you are responsible for the Republican losses on January 5.
By lecturing your most loyal supporters that the election process was a fraud, many in the reddest parts of the state stayed home.
Those two losses will cost you your legacy. The Democrats will now have the power to repeal your legislative victories.
But worst of all was your behavior on Wednesday, January 6. You egged on a bunch of lunatic fringe supporters to disrupt the Capitol Building.
Their behavior was criminal and cost innocent lives. And in the eyes of the world, we looked like a banana republic.
In a week from now, your political career will be over. There will be no comebacks. My guess is you will be the worst ex-president in the nation’s history. You will constantly rant and rave. But before long, the public will grow weary of your antics and you will be written off as an old crank.
Good-bye Mr. President, and good riddance!
