{"id":11060,"date":"2018-10-17T16:29:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T23:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=11060"},"modified":"2018-10-17T16:29:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T23:29:11","slug":"open-letter-to-united-states-president-from-anonymous-pro-trump-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=11060","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Open-letter to United States President\u2019 from anonymous pro-Trump author"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mysterious full-page \u201copen letter to the President of the United States Donald J. Trump,\u201d written by an anonymous Trump supporter, appeared on page A20 of the Washington Post print edition Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Unlike most political ads, whose sponsors are identified, neither the author nor the paper are saying who funded it.<\/p>\n

The letter is long and filled with the kind of pro-Trump language that\u00a0Trump<\/a>himself<\/a>\u00a0loves to use. Its author, who claims to be nearly 90 years old and \u201ca reluctant \u2018anonymous’\u201d trying to protect personal safety in the face of \u201cthe violence the Radical Left unleash against those who speak out against them,\u201d begins by praising Trump\u2019s\u00a0internationally mocked<\/a>\u00a0United Nations address last month as \u201creminiscent of\u00a0Winston Churchill<\/a>\u201d and\u00a0Ronald Reagan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/picture><\/div>
THE PRO-TRUMP ANONYMOUS PAID ADVERTISEMENT IN WEDNESDAY’S WASHINGTON POST. CREDIT: THINKPROGRESS PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The letter attacks the \u201cRadical Left<\/a>\u201d for trying to \u201cfool as many people as they can into thinking \u2018God is Dead’\u201d and embracing \u201cjunk science like \u2018Man-Made\u00a0Global Warming<\/a>\u00a0[sic]\u201d and \u201cfailed political philosophies such as\u00a0Socialism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
It praises Brett Kavanaugh and Melania Trump and decries the \u201c90% or more\u2026\u00a0negative news<\/a>\u00a0coverage\u201d Trump has \u201cendured.\u201d And the author opines that Trump was \u201cchosen\u201d to be president, \u201cjust like God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The anonymous pro-Trump letter concludes, \u201cHopefully, Sir, one day we will meet, and I will proudly tell you my name while shaking your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter appears under the words \u201cAdvertisement \u2026 Advertisement,\u201d but includes no indication of who paid the\u00a0tens of thousands of dollars<\/a>\u00a0for the ad. The Post did not immediately respond to a ThinkProgress inquiry about the ad\u2019s sponsorship and why it opted to run an anonymous political message of this type without disclosing who paid for it.<\/p>\n

The ad includes URLs to a web domain that was\u00a0registered<\/a>\u00a0(anonymously, of course) earlier this month and a Twitter handle that was created around the same time. As of mid-morning on Wednesday, the account had tweeted two links to an online version of the letter, retweeted several right-wing posts, and posted an obscure pro-theocracy\u00a0quote<\/a>\u00a0nearly identical to one published in a\u00a0book<\/a>\u00a0by a\u00a0fringe conservative group<\/a>, the National Center for Constitutional Studies.<\/p>\n

That organization, founded by\u00a0a deceased Brigham Young University professor who\u00a0supported<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0John Birch Society<\/a>, did not respond to a ThinkProgress inquiry about the ad.<\/p>\n

\n

The earth is governed by God\u2019s law, not the whims of mankind.<\/p>\n

\u2014 On Open Letter to President Trump (@ToOurPOTUS)\u00a0October 17, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul Seamus Ryan, vice president for policy and litigation at Common Cause, told ThinkProgress that as long as the ad was not paid for by a political committee, there was no legal requirement that the ad include a disclaimer identifying its sponsor.<\/p>\n

\n
\u201c[I]ndividuals and groups that are not registered political committees only have to include \u2018paid for by\u2019 disclaimers on print communications \u2018expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate\u2019 or soliciting political contributions,\u201d he explained.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But just six years ago, the Washington Post\u2019s editorial board called for \u201cending secret money in politics<\/a>.\u201d In it, they wrote, \u201cAs the\u00a0Supreme Court explained\u00a0<\/a>in its\u00a0Citizens United<\/i>\u00a0ruling, \u2018disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way. This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.’\u201d<\/p>\n

They then asked rhetorically, \u201cWhat, exactly, is the problem with transparency?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Post\u2019s decision not to identify who paid for the ad, the electorate cannot give proper weight to whether the message is from a devoted supporter, a rich donor hoping to curry favorable treatment from the White House, or Trump himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mysterious full-page \u201copen letter to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11061,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11060\/revisions\/11061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}