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David Lynch Pens Open Letter to Trump: “You Are Causing Suffering and Division”

ROME, ITALY - NOVEMBER 04: David Lynch walks the red carpet during the 12th Rome Film Fest at Auditorium Parco Della Musica on November 4, 2017 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty Images)

Following his triumphant comeback with Twin Peaks: The Return last year, David Lynch is having another press run to celebrate the release of another project: his new memoir Room to Dream. While two recent, in-depth interviews with Lynch were filled with plenty of charming and typically enigmatic quotables, an oblique comment about Donald Trump in The Guardian drew headlines: “He could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way…Our so-called leaders can’t take the country forward, can’t get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this.”

Close reading makes it clear that the statement doesn’t  function as an endorsement of the President of the United States, even if the sentiment isn’t appealing. But following the publication of the interview, Trump subsequently retweeted a Breitbart article about Lynch’s statements and read a portion of it at a rally yesterday evening (“Of course, there goes his career, right, in Hollywood,” Trump followed up.)

Now, Lynch has taken it upon himself to respond to Trump and clarify the statements he made in The Guardian. In a open letter posted to his Facebook page, the esteemed director wrote:

Dear Mr. President,

This is David Lynch writing. I saw that you re-tweeted the Breitbart article with the heading – Director David Lynch: Trump ‘Could Go Down as One of the Greatest Presidents in History.’ I wish you and I could sit down and have a talk. This quote which has traveled around was taken a bit out of context and would need some explaining.

Unfortunately, if you continue as you have been, you will not have a chance to go down in history as a great president. This would be very sad it seems for you – and for the country. You are causing suffering and division.

It’s not too late to turn the ship around. Point our ship toward a bright future for all. You can unite the country. Your soul will sing. Under great loving leadership, no one loses – everybody wins. It’s something I hope you think about and take to heart. All you need to do is treat all the people as you would like to be treated.

Sincerely,

David Lynch

Will David Lynch be the one to finally get Trump to “turn the ship around”? Let’s hope for everyone’s sake this “talk” Lynch proposes doesn’t actually happen, and no one has to spend any more time associating one of the greatest creative minds in modern cinema with the current President of the United States in any way.