28 February 2025

Dear President Trump,

Today, I am ashamed. You sit in office as the most powerful man on the planet, but today, you used that position not to ennoble or uplift. You used it to belittle, to attack President Zelensky, a man who is the president of a smaller, weaker country. A man who was a guest in your office, seeking our help.

It was a shameful performance. A performance that—in hindsight—it appears you and your vice president have been plotting for the last several weeks. The cynic in me wonders how much President Putin is paying you, to so totally upend our history of defending the weak from the predations of the strong and ruthless. Rather, it appears you would prefer to be seen as one of those strong and ruthless.

Any man who must say “I am the king” is no true king. Similarly, any person who must attack a weakling is not truly powerful, and any man who demands obeisance and then belittles is no true man. And any president who takes every opportunity to attack his predecessor is obviously not nearly as great as that predecessor.

Today, I am embarrassed to be an American. That the rest of the world might think I agree with your words and condone your actions today is abhorrent to me. Thus, I make this letter public. Your words and actions in the Oval Office were not presidential, were not the words or actions of a true president, and have brought shame to our country.

In disappointment,

Ian Randal Strock

P.S. – Looking at all the toadies thanking you for “standing up for America” (in https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/02/support-pours-in-for-president-trump-vp-vances-america-first-strength/), I have to wonder who they thought you were standing up to? Do you think Ukraine is such a threat to the United States that you have to “stand up to Zelensky”? You didn’t stand up; you attacked a much smaller and weaker country.