Why write letters to Senator Thune? Like so many Americans who are worried about the future of our democracy, I wanted to do something to speak out. Because I have physical limitations, I’ve only participated in one No Kings March. And, from time to time, I write opinion pieces for Woman Around Town.
But inspired by The Correspondent, the bestselling book by Virginia Evans, I know that sending someone an actual letter can have a powerful impact. And why John Thune? Writing to Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, while important, will not move the needle. The Democrats are in the minority and have little power to stop what President Trump and his cabinet are doing. Senator Thune, however, is the Majority Leader. Although his party has a slim majority in the Senate, he does have power to influence what happens there.
Because I live in New York, I’m not one of Thune’s constituents, someone who will be able to vote for him when he’s up for reelection in 2028. But as the Senate Majority Leader, he is working for me and all Americans. The first letter, on January 19, was an introduction, giving him a heads up that I would be writing to him every day. After 100 letters, I have yet to receive a response from him or anyone in his office.
I often wonder whether a staff member is reading my letters and, perhaps, passing one or more on to him. Are they being kept in a file? Or, when someone sees my name and return address on the envelope, is it unceremoniously dumped into the trash? I may never find out.
Although I’ve reached this milestone, I don’t intend to stop writing until after the midterms. At that point, I will have written more than 200 letters.
Senator Thune
For those who don’t know much about Senator Thune, he’s from South Dakota, the same state that gave us Kristi Noem. His website opens with a video of him carrying a rifle. Republicans continue to be against any form of gun control, and I don’t expect to move him on that issue. There are also videos of farms – South Dakota is a farming state – and many showing him talking to constituents.
Senator Thune, unlike Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, doesn’t pick fights with the media. Despite his high level job, he doesn’t seem to seek out the spotlight. If you were to be casting someone to play a senator or even a president in a film, Thune would fit the bill. His appearance and demeanor shout someone who sees himself as a leader. Unlike Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, you won’t find Thune running around the Capitol in running shorts. Thune looks like he stepped out of a Brooks Brothers catalog. In my second letter to him, dated January 23, I told him he reminded me of Robert Young who starred as Jim Anderson in the popular 1950’s TV show, Father Knows Best. He appears as someone who engenders trust in those he works with. Could Americans trust him to do something, anything, to serve as one of those guard rails we still hope might materialize?
When I told some family members and friends what I was doing, I was greeted with many raised eyebrows. What did I hope to accomplish writing to a conservative Republican, and an evangelical at that, hoping to convince him that he needs to perhaps place his leadership job in jeopardy by opposing Trump? My rationale is that, at some point, even Trump’s most ardent supporters will begin to think about their own legacies. My hope is that something I say in a letter might break through and cause someone like Thune to reconsider the motives and policies of a president he continues to follow. Several times I asked if he has sleepless nights, when he would go over what transpired that day and think, is this right? That this husband, father, and grandfather might wake up and wonder, like I have, what kind of a country am I leaving behind for my loved ones?
In each letter, I kept my tone respectful and tried to make what I am writing about personal. Because in the end, isn’t that how most of us regard what’s happening? Don’t we worry about how a Trump policy is having an adverse effect on someone we care about? Don’t we think back to our own family history and know that there’s a reason we want to protect our democracy?
I never have a shortage of material, since each day our president continues to do something so outrageous that I can’t help but speak out. And I always wonder why Thune and others are not speaking out, too. The excerpts below are just examples of what I’ve written about in my letters.
January – ICE Raids, Vaccines, Free Speech
After watching in horror what Trump’s ICE was doing in blue states, my January 24 letter to Thune talked about my grandparents, who came to America from Italy in the early 1900s. “I often think about my grandparents and wonder if they would recognize the country America has become,” I wrote. “They fled criminals and eventually the fascists in Italy. How would they be able to absorb that the country they came to has become the country they left behind?”
By the time Thune was born, in 1961, we had vaccines for polio and measles. I was born in 1948, before Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in the early 1950s. I wrote, “We often saw photos of children who had been crippled by the disease.” (Thune’s predecessor as Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, was stricken by polio when he was two years old.) Because there wasn’t yet a vaccine for measles, I and my two siblings came down with the disease. “It was a terrible sickness, but we survived, unlike some children who died.” Now with vaccine-denier Robert Kennedy Jr. in charge of our nation’s health, we are once again seeing outbreaks and deaths. Thune, along with a majority of Republican senators, voted to confirm RFK Jr.
I was a senior in college, but Thune was only nine, when four unarmed college students were killed and nine were wounded on the Kent State University campus in Kent, Ohio during a protest against the Vietnam War. But he did witness what happened in Minneapolis when poorly trained ICE officers gunned down Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse. In a January 27 letter, I told him, “Please, Senator Thune, you weren’t old enough in 1970 to make a difference. You are now. Do it for all those nine-year-olds nationwide who have the right to be raised in a country where all their rights, including those to peacefully protest, are protected.”
February – Black History, Trump’s Mental Acuity, the Epstein Files
On February 2, two days into Black History Month, I listed everything Trump has done to erase and change Black History. Included were: how Trump has targeted the Smithsonian and museums as being “out of control” for their focus on the harsh realities of slavery; reversing the focus of the “1619 Project” which centered on the legacy of slavery; removing historical content on monuments; elimination of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion); and discontinuing free admission days on Juneteenth and MLK Day. “History cannot be rewritten, but we will repeat the mistakes of the past in five years if we continue down this road,” I wrote.
“My mother died when she was 92, but for more than ten years, she suffered from dementia,” I told Thune in a February 7 letter. I began to notice changes in her mental acuity when she turned 80, the age Trump will turn on June 14. “When I watch Trump’s mental lapses on TV – substituting Iceland for Greenland, and having a staff member give him the term for the disease he may have, Alzheimer’s – I can’t help but think of my mother,” I wrote. “I also recall her paranoid episodes when she would lash out at me and accuse me of things I didn’t do. Trump has many of those episodes, which, unfortunately, he amplifies on Truth Social.”
Mark Strong and Lesley Manville in Oedipus – Photo: Julieta Cervantes
Lesley Manville has been nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the New York production of Oedipus. Robert Icke’s play is a retelling of the ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles. “The penultimate moment in the play comes when Manville’s character tells her own personal history, a monologue that has been written by Icke,” I told Thune in a February 11 letter. “It’s such an emotional moment that the entire audience is hushed. What Jocasta talks about is the sexual abuse she endured by the country’s leader, Laius, then in his fifties. Her description of being forced to have sex with a man so much older, the pain, the humiliation she suffered, is delivered by Manville in a performance that earned her an Olivier Award in London.”
I told Thune that while listening to Manville it was hard not to think about those Epstein survivors whose experiences, being trafficked to older men like the former Prince Andrew, has traumatized so many of them for life. The Trump administration has done everything possible to avoid releasing the Epstein files. “Why, Senator Thune, do the Republicans (except for Thomas Massie) keep doing everything possible to protect these wealthy individuals?” I asked him. “While these woman have been in a living hell for most of their lives, the rich abusers continue to lie.”
March – The Ballroom, Iran, The Military, a Free Press
On March 3, my letter raised for the first, and not the last time, whether Trump has lost interest in the war he has started. After returning to the White House from a weekend spent playing golf at Mar-a-Lago, he was asked about the war. He engaged in what he has called “the weave,” meandering from one topic to another without answering any questions. He boasted about what he’s done to the Rose Garden, paving it over, and talked about the curtains that will hang in his ballroom. “It’ll be spectacular, it’ll be the most beautiful ballroom. I believe it’s because I’ve built many a ballroom,” he said. “I believe it’s going to be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world.” (I return to the subject of the ballroom in numerous letters written since March, because the cost has soared and now he wants American taxpayers to pay for a building no one wants.)
On March 4, I reminded Thune how Trump has talked disparagingly about the military, calling those who serve and die “suckers” and “losers.” But he’s fine with sending young people to die in his illegal war. “When Trump learned that six service members have been killed in Operation Epic Fury, he showed no empathy, saying, `Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That’s the way it is.’ Yes, that’s the way it is with Trump.”
Trump and Secretary Hegseth continue to keep the truth from Americans about what’s happening in the Iran war. Since Hegseth barred legitimate media from briefings at the Pentagon, the questions he’s asked by the friendly right wing press do little to probe. But press people are tough, smart, and diligent, and brilliant investigative reporting by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, MS NOW, and the Washington Post have produced embarrassing headlines. After Hegseth threatened a CNN reporter, that threat was picked up by Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who said: “Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.” I asked Thune: “What is the public interest? To repeat the lies and join the subterfuge coming from Trump and Hegseth that fails to present what is really happening in Iran?”
April – SCOTUS, DOJ, Trump as Jesus, King Charles
On April 2, as the U.S. Supreme Court, began to consider Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship, I wrote once again about my grandparents. “My grandfather came to the U.S. from Italy and became a naturalized citizen in 1921,” I wrote. “My mother was born in 1916, her middle sister in 1918, and her younger sister in 1920. If not for birthright citizenship, they would not have been American citizens when they were born.” (The ruling by the Supreme Court has not yet been handed down. On the day of the arguments Trump showed up at the hearing, something a sitting president has never done, perhaps thinking his presence would pressure them into supporting his lawsuit.)
I’ve served on two grand juries in New York City. As Trump uses what he treats as his personal law firm, the Department of Justice, to go after his enemies, he’s often on the losing side. “`You can indict a ham sandwich’” is a famous legal adage coined by former New York Chief Judge Sol Wachtler in 1985, meaning prosecutors can persuade a grand jury to indict anyone,” I reminded Thune. “But time and time again, grand juries have defied Trump prosecutors who have sought to indict his enemies.” A grand jury in North Carolina has indicted former FBI Director James Comey for reposting a photo of seashells on a beach that spelled out “86 47,” which Todd Blanche, acting Attorney General, says is a threat to Trump. Actually, 86 is common shorthand in restaurants for telling servers “we’re out of ham sandwiches.” So we’ll see what happens when and if Comey’s case makes it to trial.
I was disappointed that Thune failed to speak out forcefully when Trump posted an image of himself as Jesus Christ. After noting that Trump had taken the image down, Thune said: “I would leave the church alone.” I wrote: “Really, Senator Thune? This is the best you can do? Dodging the question. Can you honestly say that you as a Christian, an evangelical, are comfortable with Trump comparing himself to Jesus Christ? When, when, when will you and the Trump enablers come out and say publicly what I know you are saying privately, that this president is deranged and out of control?” I repeated the warning from Game of Thrones, “Winter is coming,” saying for the Republicans, it’s, “Midterms are coming.”
My 70th letter on April 17, said that Trump often says those who criticize him are suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.” In fact, Trump is actually making people sick. “Mental health professionals and analysts have reported patients exhibiting distress, including anxiety, depression, anger, fear, and even physical symptoms like sleeplessness, weight changes, and headaches,” I told Thune. “Some experts have argued that the political climate during Trump’s tenure could potentially lead to long-term psychosocial harm and impact physical health, with one study indicating increased stress-related health issues.”
When King Charles III came to Washington, D.C., on April 27, I told Thune, “A real king showed a wannabe king how it’s done.” What was ironic, Trump and Republicans applauded the King when he spoke to Congress and later at a White House dinner. But what the king was saying, was antithetical to everything Tump and his supporters promote. King Charles talked about supporting NATO and Ukraine, things Trump constantly disparages. And he quoted from the Magna Carta that established the concept that kings must answer to the law. Trump’s speech, on the other hand, “sounded like it had been written by Stephen Miller, whose view of America is one with no one of color living here.” I told Thune that The New York Times was quick to point out that the guest list for the state dinner included only one Black – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who consistently votes in Trump’s favor.
May – Bill Cassidy, Voting Rights, China, Anti-Weaponization Fund
On May 13, I wrote to Thune about one of his colleagues, Bill Cassidy, a physician, who is one of the few Republicans left in the Senate who voted to impeach Trump after January 6. Unfortunately for Cassidy, Trump won back the presidency and went after Cassidy, who lost the primary in Louisiana, coming in third, no less, to hold onto his seat. Cassidy tried his best to get back into Trump’s good graces, even voting to approve RFK Jr.’s nomination as secretary of health and human services. “Will Cassidy speak out now as MTG has?” I asked Thune in that letter. We now know he will, since after the loss he said that an individual “should not pout, whine, claim an election was stolen, or find or manufacture excuses.” He also said “our country is not about one individual.” I asked Thune if Cassidy speaks out, will he?
On May 14, I reminded Thune that he was among the senators who had voted for the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006. But with the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act, I asked, “Senator Thune, will you support new voting rights legislation?” I added, “History will remember these times. How do you want to be remembered?”
“As I watched Trump arrive in China, I had one thought: He’s in over his head,” I told Thune in a May 15 letter. “While he acted like a suck-up to Xi, telling him what a great leader this dictator is, Xi, issued threats about Taiwan. In every photo that was publicized, Trump looked tired and, yes, scared. I had the feeling if someone gave him the chance to get on Air Force One and go back to Mar-a-Lago, he would do it.” Trump came out of China with nothing to show for the effort. He did, however, post on Truth Social that he has to have a ballroom as grand as Xi’s.
“Todd Blanche has set up a slush fund of $1.776 billion to be doled out to those who have been victimized by the `weaponization’ of the Justice Department under Biden,” I said to Thune in a May 20 letter. “That includes those who stormed the Capitol on January 6 and assaulted police officers.” House Democrats are fighting this outrageous approach to award Trump’s “patriots,” calling it one of the most corrupt operations ever.
I also highlighted something from The Financial Times: “Financial disclosures for US President Donald Trump showed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions involving securities in major American companies including Nvidia, Palantir, Paramount and Boeing in the first three months of 2026. Regulatory filings published by the US Office of Government Ethics show transactions involving Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Meta, Visa, Citi, Boeing, Qualcomm and GE Aerospace.”
“Senator Thune,” I wrote, “are you OK with all this grift? Should a president with the power to change a company’s stock price be allowed to buy that company’s stock before the news becomes public?”
The 100th Letter
On May 24, I wrote my 100th letter to Senator Thune. I include it here in its entirety.
Senator Thune,
This is the 100th letter I’ve written to you. Surprised? I’m not. As we age, time goes by quickly. Perhaps you’re not there yet, but you will be, always asking yourself, “where did all those days go?”
Senator Thune, when you were in high school, what was the phrase they printed on your page in the yearbook? “Most likely to succeed?” “Most athletic?” (You were an athlete.) “Most likely to become a millionaire?” “Most likely to get married first?” “Most likely to start a band?”
How about “Most likely to support an autocratic president?” Or “Most likely to look the other way when our democracy is being destroyed?”
I don’t doubt that your job is stressful, that each day is faced with new challenges. Do you feel you are still up to the job? That you are not serving one man but the American people and the constitution?
In the history of the world, Senator Thune, this will be a blip. But it will be a moment that will be written about in history books, dissected, each participant examined for what they did or did not do. Will you be able to withstand that scrutiny? Will you be able to hold your head high and know you did the right thing? Or will you go back to South Dakota and try to fade away? But you will never be able to avoid questions from friends and relatives and stares from those who regret sending you to Washington, DC.
The choice you have to make isn’t complicated. Either you worship Trump, or you live up to the oath you took “to defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.”
I wouldn’t have spent all this time writing to you, Senator Thune, unless I believed that you will do the right thing.
Please don’t let me, and all Americans, down.
Sincerely,
Charlene Giannetti
PS: This isn’t the end. Letter 101 tomorrow.
Top Shutterstock photo of Senator John Thune by Joshua Sukoff
