Dear Mr. President:
I could be mistaken, but I'm beginning to suspect that maybe, just maybe, you are beginning to realize that you are fallible.
That maybe, just maybe, you have spent the first half of your second term in office alienating the very people who helped you get there in the first place.
That members of your own Party are beginning to think about their futures and, as it turns out, you do not loom large as a continuing presence there—five or ten years from now.
That if you keep making rash, not to say foolhardy, decisions, playing with the lives of millions of people around the world, you could conceivably spend your retirement in Nixonian exile—or worse.
If, by chance, you have an inkling that any of what I've just said is accurate; if, by chance, you are not looking forward to spending the next two years as a hapless, ridiculed, indeed much maligned lame duck; here's what you can do to salvage your Presidency:
1. Tell Benjamin Netanyahu to go pound salt. You may think you have a good relationship with him, but he couldn't care less about you. Demand that he abandon his plans to create a "Greater Israel." And put teeth in those demands: stop funding his warmongering and the Gaza genocide—make him go begging to Europe or wherever (probably Ukraine) for his weapons of mass destruction. And, while you're at it, stop shipping weapons to Ukraine (everyone knows you're doing it).
2. Relatedly, remember that Joe Biden was the genocide's first Enabler-in-Chief. This is something you can legitimately blame him for, so waste no time doing so. But don't stop there. Do something worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize (tarnished as it is). It is painfully obvious to anyone with eyes in their head that your "Board of Peace" is a joke. Abandon that plan, recognize that the Israelis have been committing genocide in Gaza, and champion the Palestinians' cause: they are the indigenous people of that land and should be recognized as such. Demand that the Israelis pull back to the pre-1967 borders and begin constructive peace talks. Demand transparency on the part of all parties and have the U.S. participate, for once, as an honest broker.
3. With all due respect, Mr. President, you have surrounded yourself with a rogues gallery of incompetent clowns. Even your die-hard supporters are beginning to judge you by the company you keep. It is time to clean house. At minimum, that means it's time to say "You're fired!" to Stephen Miller, Pete Hegseth, RFK, Jr., Kash Patel, and "Acting United States Attorney General" (and what a poor actor he is) Todd Blanche. Surely there are members of your own Party who could potentially fill their positions and chew gum at the same time. You need to find those people and stop relying on bigots, fools, and bigoted fools.
4. Negotiate a real and lasting peace with Iran. Repair the damage your predecessors (including Eisenhower and Carter) have done by ignoring Iran's legitimacy as a sovereign state. You don't have to like the Iranian government, but you do have to recognize the mistake you made listening to Netanyahu and following established U.S. foreign policy precedent. The C.I.A. overthrew Iran's democratically elected government in 1953 and it is long past time for the United States to own up to its errors and chart a new course in the Middle East.
The above recommendations only scratch the surface of the damage your Administration has done in a year and a half in power. More actions need to be taken to ameliorate that damage in terms of foreign policy, and I haven't begun to address the domestic damage—what you once called "American carnage" and blamed on others but now rests squarely on your shoulders.
I know this contradicts your modus operandi of act from your gut, declare hyperbolic victories, self-deal, and move quickly to the next thing before anyone notices the mess you've made, but by that method you have dug yourself a pit and fallen into it. If you continue to dig, you'll find yourself right where the old joke would predict: in China.
