Dear President Trump:

Two years ago today you became our President. I don’t think you expected it and I know I didn’t, but it happened. At the time your told us you were going to be the greatest President in our history. I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now; two years ago I set us some benchmarks and told you that you would be graded against them. So here’s what I have:

• The Dow Jones average was 19,732.40. Today it is 24,706. That looks good but you caught a break coming into office after President Obama rescued the economy from the brink of disaster. Last year at this time it was 26,071.72. You’re going backwards.
• Likewise the NASDAQ was 5540.08 on January 20, 2017. A year later it was 7336.38 and today it’s 7157.23. Again, you’re going backward.
• Finally, the Standard and Poor’s 500 (the S&P 500) started at 2663.69 and last year it was 2810.30. Today it’s 2670.71. More backwards.
• You’ve done well with the unemployment rate. In 2017 was 4.7% and in 2018 it was 4.l%. Currently it’s 3.9%. I give you props for that.
• Currently 153,340,000 are employed in the United States and that’s good. It’s up from 123,570,00 two years ago. Of course, it doesn’t count the government employees that aren’t being paid. More later.
• Gallup tells us that your approval rating stands at about 37% and that’s been consistent for your time in office. Your minimal base appears to continue to support you
• You ran on a platform to make us great again. When you entered the White House the federal deficit was $590 billion (that is, we spend more than we earn). Today it’s $985 billion.
• The deficit is different from the national debt. The deficit means we need to borrow money to keep things working. The debt tells us how much money we’ve borrowed (and need to repay). Two years ago the national debt was just under $20 trillion. Now it’s approaching $22 trillion.
• You ran promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with something better. Your best efforts to replace the ACA didn’t work, though you have had some success in disabling it. Two years ago 11% of Americans didn’t have health insurance. Today it appears to be 12.2%

But these numbers don’t tell the whole story. As I write this we are nearly a month into a partial government shutdown. Thousands of government employees and contractors are not being paid (even though some are forced to work) because you insist on building a border wall that most Americans recognize as a bad idea. You’re not doing this because you think it’s a good idea or good for the country. You’re doing this because you recognize that Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter will not support you and you’re afraid of them.

Mr. Trump, you could resign, go back to your tower in New York, and never have to worry about paying your bills. If you do that thousands of government employees and contractors will also have to stop worrying about their bills.