Throughout Donald Trump’s divisive, incendiary and controversial presidential campaign, the former reality star attracted a mountain of criticism form citizens and celebs alike, including his former mogul friend Russell Simmons. Despite Simmons’ previous chastisement of his old friend, Trump continued to malign minorities all the way to the White House. And now that Trump is the president-elect, Simmons has come back around with another open letter to Trump.
Simmons posted the message to Trump online, via the Huffington Post, this week and started off the letter by first congratulating Trump on his shocking political upset.
“Donald, congratulations on becoming our next president of the United States. While almost everyone in this country doubted that you could win, you believed in yourself and pulled off one of the greatest upsets in political history. Now, your new job begins and I offer you some friendly advice. As a yogi, not a priest,” Simmons wrote.
The famous hip-hop mogul then explained that Trump has the opportunity to bring fresh new thoughts to the presidency that this country has never seen before.
“You’ve never been a part of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, as neither of them ever fully embraced you. You have been an independent thinker and successful businessman, who has spoken your own truth during your entire life. While I disagree with many of the things that you have said during your campaign and many of your policies that you have proposed, you will still be our president, and I am willing to work for and with you,” Simmons said.
However, Simmons claimed that Trump’s opportunity to help the American people will be squandered and that Trump will do real harm to the world if he tries to run his presidency off of the racism, xenophobia, homophobia and sexism he displayed throughout his campaign.
“You have many progressive friends from New York and your campaign has alienated many of them. It is time to bring them back into your circle, so you can get honest advice from people who have known you for years. Those who have surrounded you during the campaign have offered some very dangerous policies that would hurt people and the planet, which I want to believe you still care about. The far right wing and the alt-right were your most staunch supporters, but those people are not your friends and you know that. You have the chance to be the first true independent president this country has ever seen, but your radical beliefs you ran on during your campaign must be addressed,” Simmons wrote.
He continued, “Donald, you cannot target a religious group of people. That is dangerous. You cannot separate families and deport people who have only known this country as their home. That is immoral. Donald, you cannot further militarize the police and empower them to antagonize and terrorize black communities. That is unjust. You cannot wage war against women’s rights. That is disastrous. You must stop with the hateful and harmful language towards women and people of color. That is unacceptable. Donald, you cannot rip up all of our regulations that protect our planet, continue to subsidize the meat industry and put people in power that think climate change is a hoax (the rumor of who you want to appoint to run the EPA is frightening). That is beyond repair. There are a lot of people who felt the government had forgotten about them, lead them to outcomes that don’t hurt those who did not support you. Put the pain on the lack of ingenuity and opportunity that government might have not provided to them, but never punish those that think differently than you.”
But that’s not all that Simmons had to say about Trump’s presidency. Read the rest of his open letter to Trump, after the cut.
