The Honorable Donald J. Trump
45th President of the United States
Mar-a-Lago
Florida
United States of America

Dear Mr. President,

You know what? I don't have time for the niceties — our country's on fire — so henceforth, I'm just going to call you Don. I hope you don't mind, but we have an issue up here in the Great Lake State that I don't know if you have heard about. 

The Michigan GOP that delivered you a narrow and squeaky-clean razor-thin win in 2016 by 11,000 votes out of 4.3 million cast is currently on fire. 

Now, I know you are somewhat familiar with Michigan because your hand-picked chairperson for the national GOP, Ronna Romney McDaniel, was the chairperson of the state party when you won here in 2016. Now, Don, I've talked to many people since 2016 who said it was McDaniel's leadership that helped you win, that it was your campaign's resistance to pulling out of Michigan as McCain did early in 2008, or that it was a combination of both. With these instances, I usually split the difference, go down the middle, and say it was probably a combination of both that a Republican won here in 2016 for the first time since 1988 because Michigan is primarily a blue state. 

For those who don't believe things like results over the past 20 or 30 years, I already have you covered.

Michigan Is a BLUE State and Lying About It Won't Change That Fact

So, let me start with some basic facts to make sure we are all on the same page.

Michigan, since the 2002 election of Jennifer Granholm and her re-election in 2006, has elected progressive-leaning candidates. The hiccup of “republican” Rick Snyder who raised your taxes, let the Flint water debacle happen, and was pro-abortion, was Democrat-Lite. Now with Whitmer elected in 2018 and just re-elected in 2022, this trend continues with the state’s chief executive.

Michigan has not elected a Republican United States Senator since 1994 with Spencer Abraham, who was defeated by now-retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow. In case you are wondering how long that is, due to your time in the state’s floundering public school system, in 2024, it will be a full 30 years since you sent a member of the GOP to D.C. to occupy a seat in the upper chamber of Congress.

Please don’t use the excuse that the GOP has picked establishment hacks to face off against hapless Democrats like Stabenow and Peters. You had newly elected (barely) to a House seat John James, face off against both Senators two years apart and lose. In fact, James only won his seat last November by just under 2,000 votes.

Michigan Republicans just lost both the State House and Senate control for the first time since before John Engler left office. The only bright spot the GOP had was control of the legislature, and now that the redistricting is out of the hands of the legislature and given to a group of citizens who are picked through some weird process, you can bet the GOP won’t be getting a favorable district any time soon.

Those are all just facts that are verifiable. We can discuss the reasons why this has occurred and the overall cause and effect, but what I just wrote above is factual history.

Now, Don, I know that's not going to make you happy or some of your fans but it's the truth. 

Michigan has become a blue state over the past 20 years due to a number of factors, and it'll be a little while before we get back to purple. Like I said above, I know that makes some of your true blue supporters up here in the state of Michigan feel like they're hearing somebody scratch their fingernails across a chalkboard, but I don't have time for niceties and playing stupid word games with people who have been lying about the results that they can get for years on end.

As you would say on your reality TV show, results are results. And you would have fired a lot of these people. 

This brings us to the issue at hand here for this note about the current state of Michigan GOP.

It's a damn disaster.

Imagine Joe Biden running the country, but on a smaller scale and with really powerful steroids.

I'm not kidding.

You know of Kristina Karamo because you endorsed her for her Secretary of State race early in 2022. She got her rear handed to her by 14 points in the general election and refused to concede because of fraud. 

There was no fraud. 

Ask whoever your closest political advisor is right now if someone who is the victim of fraud loses by 14 points. After they stop laughing...

Karamo then decided she would run for State Chair, and her camp and Matt DePernos' camp fought pretty darn hard to get your endorsement. Yet in the end, for reasons only known to you, the call came that you would endorse DePerno, and he went on at the convention to lose in a four-ballot contest to Karamo.

One of the deciding factors, according to media reports, for delegates deciding to choose Karamo was that she would carry out the Trump plan of exposing corruption better than the person that you endorsed. While I'm not a member of the party and was not in Lansing that day, I was a bit surprised by that rationale, but it was as it was.

Anyway, Don, early on in Karamos’ time as the top person for the Michigan GOP, her inexplicable decision to abandon the headquarters because it was costing too much money as a fiscally responsible move raised a flag with me. As a real estate guy, I'm sure you understand how this works. She abandoned the building because she said it was much too expensive to keep the lease, and then when the party got into too much debt, she decided to sue the trust owners to gain custody of the building so she could sell it to try to alleviate some debt.

I wrote about this right here.

Showdown: Michigan Republican Committee Votes to Remove Party Chair Karamo—She Vows Not to Leave 

A party needs a place where the leaders can gather, where the county chairs can meet and discuss numerous things, and come up with a coherent strategy for the next election cycle. Karamo abandoned that right off the bat, My Spidey senses went off, and I'm not even a member of the party. 

I'm glad the actual members who have the authority to do so started the process of getting rid of somebody who--if she is not actually a Democrat--she's done a favor to the Democrat Party by absolutely destroying its opposition party.

So, let's get the work started to try to rebuild this party before, at least, 2026.

There are a number of other things during her tenure that have raised tons of red flags: not being able to raise money, trying to out-muscle the local party chairs, and also having a side job allegedly working for a non-partisan group that helps Democrats get elected.

For the 2024 election — for which you almost assuredly will be the nominee — as you can see, this is not good for the state of Michigan.

So, while a meeting was held on Saturday to kick Karamo out of her position, there's some legal ambiguity about whether or not this was done lawfully and correctly. I've listened to both sides, and I've heard both sides make some interesting points. Sitting here today, I'm not sure which side is correct because I'm not a lawyer.

Yet I do know someone or know of someone who has some pull with enough people on all sides.

That is you, Don.

So, if you would like a minuscule chance of possibly winning Michigan in 2024 and then helping the candidates down ticket, I respectfully ask for you to hop on Trump Force One and get up here and broker a deal. I have read many accounts of you doing such a thing for your dearly departed friend from Fox News, Roger Ailes.

I believe that if you were to intervene and personally ask Karamo to step down, she would.

Unless, of course, she's actually a Trojan Horse Democrat, which I'm beginning to believe is the case. Then we would know for sure — if the de facto leader of the national GOP asked the Michigan GOP chair in a dispute to walk away and she didn't, I think that would settle a lot of things.

We would appreciate your help out here sooner rather than later. So please consider this urgent request.

Your pal,

Duke