Seeing That of God in the POTUS

Do you have difficulty seeing that of God in the POTUS—the president of the United States? If so, you are not alone. It is not for the faint of heart, but I encourage you to attempt it, because if you can find the divine spark in the POTUS, you can find it in anyone.

Intrigued? If so, you might want to join me by writing Donald Trump a letter each day. If more of us did this, we might bring out his Light and he just might start making decisions more to our liking. Even if this doesn’t happen, you might find the daily effort assuages the anxiety he is so adept at fomenting.

I started my letter writing practice because my trepidation about a Trump presidency gave me vertigo in November 2016. I was particularly shaken by his repeated references to Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man.” I feared the United States would end up in a military conflict with North Korea and felt led to begin a conversation with President Trump to help him to see that war is not the answer, as the bumper sticker goes.

The first letter started as follows:

My dear President Donald,

I love you. I am not sure you love me, but I know that you have the capacity to do so. You demonstrated during your inaugural day that you have love in your heart. It was apparent when you were signing your first orders in the Oval Office that your family is close-knit and your grandchildren feel at home in your presence.

Since I believe that we all have a divine spark which gives rise to that love, I look for it and was grateful to see it on that day. I will continue to be on the lookout for it so I can tell others about those moments, and they can come to love you, too.

I continued to write to Trump throughout his first presidency, and after the events of January 6, 2020, I decided that I needed to continue my vigil of contacting the White House just in case he was elected again. While I learned a great deal from writing during Joe Biden’s presidency from 2021 to 2025, here I focus on my correspondence with Trump.

Should you choose to exercise your Friendly muscles by crafting a letter, you will have 4,000 characters to express yourself. At least that’s the case if you choose to send your note electronically via the White House website. You might get an email back acknowledging receipt, but don’t count on it. Sending your letter by postal mail works, too. You can write as much as you want, but it will cost you 82 cents.

I have found it helpful to clarify for myself what I mean by “love” and have found bell hooks’s writing instructive. She shared M. Scott Peck’s definition as “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” To do this requires embracing the possibility that President Trump can change. I’ve found the New Testament’s account of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus a convincing example that personal transformation can happen. Octavia E. Butler’s conception of God as change has energized my writing as well.

You can use writing the POTUS as a way to keep track of current events in a way that will not evoke fear and dread. I tend to commence my writing sessions by consulting the presidential schedule to find out what the president is doing, who he is meeting, and where he is going. By focusing on mundane comings and goings rather than the sound bites and photo ops that appear in the news, you will learn that in addition to making outrageous statements and sharing disturbing social media posts, President Trump frequently visits with foreign dignitaries, confers honors, and celebrates with winning teams. Signing executive orders and traveling to strategic congressional districts also occupies his time, as does golfing.

Through my letter writing vigil, I have come to the conclusion that we all have what psychologist Carl Jung called a “shadow.” President Trump’s looms large. My witness to his daily activities has tamed the monster that the media had planted in my imagination through its sensational coverage of his words and actions. While I continue to be troubled by his decisions, wary of the people he surrounds himself with, and repulsed by his rhetoric, I no longer cringe when I hear his voice. Having been appalled by the behavior of Obama haters from 2009 through 2017, my letter writing vigil has enabled me to humanize Trump. I see him as a misguided brother rather than an odious villain.

If you begin writing letters to him, you might share them with your friends to spark conversation. Perhaps they will join the effort and we will overwhelm President Trump with so much love that he sees the Light.