Valentine's Day cards for Donald J. Trump

This week, my brother, Tom, told me he was continuing to hope Trump’s candidacy would result in major changes to the way America conducts its political and commercial operations. I agreed.

Tom also informed me he was baffled by the amount of time Trump was spending on issues in which most Americans had no interest. Now that Donald was President, Tom said these subjects were irrelevant.

I asked for examples. He cited two: Who cares how many people attended his inauguration? He got inaugurated! And who cares who got the most votes? He got the votes that counted!

Historians care about these facts, but that was not Tom’s point. He was speaking for himself as a non-political private citizen. He was also speaking for me. I trust he was speaking for the readers of this article. If these two incidents were the only examples of Trump’s zeal for being the best, it would not be a subject of consequence. The two issues unto themselves could be dismissed as noise in the political spectrum. Tom expressed concern that Trump appears to have a fixation on being No. 1.

A desire to be No. 1 is part of our behavior and the behavior of other creatures on earth. This trait makes the world go around.

But for us higher-evolved humans, this trait, if held exclusively above other traits, is counterproductive. One reason humans are so successful is that we evolved to practice cooperation among factions within our species — even between factious tribes.

During our conversation, Tom offered that Trump’s obsession on these irrelevant issues was, in his word, “childish.” Tom then spoke of an analogy to Trump’s behavior:

Remember when we were in grade school? On Valentine’s Day, cards were exchanged among us children. Later, we added up who had received the most Valentine’s Day cards in our class. Trump’s behavior reminds me of how we kids behaved on Valentine’s Day: I got more Valentine’s Day cards than you did!

Tom and I continue to hope President Trump will find a way to stop counting how many Valentine’s Day cards he receives in comparison to now irrelevant “classmates.”

In relation to being the best, we continue to hope he will tone down his messages; that he will stop using a sledgehammer on nails that can be put in place with a smaller mallet. We continue to hope his earlier declarations about his sexual size and prowess, his superior intelligence, and his overall grandiosity will be tailored down to understand the effects his statements and orders can have on ordinary citizens and well-meaning commercial enterprises.

Mr. President, it is not just Tom and me. The Koch brothers’ network (an influential conservative organization) protests several of your pronouncements, and the manner in which they were made. Companies such as Patron say they will circumvent your tariff decrees. Your orders on travel bans — which exclude two countries whose citizens contribute the most to terrorism in the U.S. (Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) — can result in loyal foreigners being shipped back to their countries of origin to face possible death.

But this article is not about the Koch brothers and others becoming disturbed about your behavior. This article is about your stopping the counting of your Valentine’s Day cards.

Mr. President, focus on what you were voted to do. We care less about how great you are. To use your word, we do care about how great America (already) is. Don’t co-join the ideas of your greatness with that of America’s.

So, get on with what you have promised to Americans. You won the presidency based on a platform and you are obligated to carry forth that platform. Just choose your words and actions more wisely, Mr. President. Think a bit more before applying the hammer when the mallet will suffice.

Otherwise, keep on pounding. America’s citizenry will ultimately decide if you have selected the correct nails to pound and if your tool, the hammer or the mallet, has been the better instrument for implementing your platform.

In the end, we citizens will be the judge of the nails you have selected to pound and the tools you have used to pound them.

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Uyless Black is the author of more than 40 books. He resides in Hayden and in Palm Springs, Calif.