Dear Ivan:

Don’t know if you were paying attention last Friday, January 20, 2017 when Mommy and I were sobbing while watching tv, but we’re okay.  We’re just feeling sad because the new President is an orange-faced narcissist named Donald Trump.  He is a man who is supremely unqualified to be President, and, yet, here we are.

Now, I mention this because throughout the campaign and in the first few days of being President, Mr. Trump has a tendency to lie.  This is unfortunate at several levels.  First, it is almost assuredly going to lead to a national disaster of epic proportion from which the United States won’t soon recover.

On a more personal level, though, it’s because Mr. Trump is setting a bad example for all the kids out there in tv land, like you.  The President should be a role model.  Regrettably, the whole thing you can model from Mr. Trump is how to have a bad hairstyle, how to turn your skin a weird color, how to have public tantrums on social media, and how to lie. None of these are things that you should emulate or copy.

Lying, if I haven’t told you before, is bad.  Sometimes in life it feels necessary to lie to spare people’s feelings (like when someone asks “do I look fat in this dress?”).  Even there, you should not lie (though it is, perhaps, a good idea to see if you can tell the truth in a way that is not guaranteed to hurt someone else’s feelings or sensitivities.

More importantly, though, you should not do what Mr. Trump does, which is simply to lie because it makes him feel better, portrays him in a better light, and allows him to not have to face the truth that he is a pretty awful human being who is not nearly as great as he thinks he is.

So, just to recap — telling the truth – good; lying – bad; Trump – awful.

Now, feel fee to go back to watching your iPad and ignoring me.

Love always,

Daddy.