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By Scott Tibbs, October 25, 2017
Note: I sent this letter to the President last week.
Mr. President,
I am deeply disappointed in and frankly concerned by your tweets threatening to illegally abuse your authority to prevent the news media from attacking you. These tweets represent the very authoritarian streak that had many conservatives worried about you in 2016, and demonstrate how you still hold to some unfortunate big-government, statist ideals.
This is not to defend the behavior of the news media. From deeply personal and depraved personal demonization of your mother to reporting easily disproven falsehoods to repeating unverified, unsourced gossip that would be more appropriate for the National Enquirer than a formerly respectable news organization, the mainstream news media has repeatedly humiliated itself and has grown increasingly deranged since you took office.
But it is an abomination to conservative principles and American values for the President to even threaten to use the power of the federal government to engage in censorship of what the news media says about you or anyone else. I harshly condemned President Obama for his myriad of illegal attacks on free speech, and I harshly condemn your tweets as well. Your tweets are a betrayal of your oath of office and an attack on the U.S. Constitution.
Mr. Trump, these childish outbursts need to stop. You are the President of these United States and you are behaving like a teenager. Worse yet, you are wading into dangerous authoritarian territory. I appreciate your desire to strike back when you are unfairly or dishonestly attacked, but threatening to break the law and betray the Constitution is not the way to do it. This is not acceptable behavior. Even if you are just blowing off steam and have no intention of actually breaking the law, your tweets by themselves are a frightening abuse of your immense power.
Mr. President, I did not vote for you in 2016 and I do not regret that decision. But as it stands now, you have converted this former "Never Trump" voter and if the 2020 election were held today I would vote for you. I am criticizing you today because I support you and I want to see you succeed.
The way to succeed is not to betray your oath of office by using your power to intimidate your critics into silence. The way to succeed is to continue to push the agenda you were elected on, and work every day to make America great again. Please, leave these childish outbursts behind so they are not a distraction to your agenda to make things better for the American people.
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