What president Trump could do

Dear fellow citizens,

Through this letter, I would like to offer all of you, those who voted for me and also those who did not, my sincere apologies. I realize that my behavior has incited many of you to turn against our very valuable and by me highly respected democratic institutions. I apologize to all of you because my statements were the direct result of my inability to deal with adversity. I must confess that it hurt me very much that I did not win the election, but instead of making myself vulnerable and showing my pain, I chose to attack. I chose not to show myself vulnerable because then I feared that no one would find me valuable anymore. Therefore, I led many of you to believe that the election was fake, even though I had no proof of that myself. I knew that if I did that, my supporters would give credence to my words anyway. In this way, I saw another chance to escape the shame of losing. I knew that I could no longer succeed myself as president, but at least by my actions I would have caused enough doubt about the legitimacy of the elections that I could show up everywhere with my head held high for the next few years. 

I realize now that this attitude of mine was wrong and very dangerous. I understand that I must be punished for it, but at the same time I hope that the judges will take my objective merits as president for the past four years into account in their assessment. I have accomplished very good things together with my team over the past four years. But even there I must humbly admit that the attitude I adopted toward many of you was not correct. I cloaked myself in an offensive suit because I have learned that this is the best way to survive. I now understand that this caused harm to myself as well as many others. Without wanting to use this as an excuse and with great trepidation, I share with you that as a child I never felt appreciation for who I was. Therefore, I always sought to be liked through accomplishments and the way I achieved them was secondary. For me, the end justified all means. And that was wrong. 

Hence, I hereby apologize to every American for deceiving you. I have acted differently than who I really am all of my adult life, and as a result I have activated discord and hatred in our society. I hope that with this confession I am helping to bring our wonderful country back to unity. God bless you all and God bless America.

Ghostwriter: Bart De Bondt, specialist on vulnerable leadership.