Popular British journalist and television personality currently working as the US editor-at-large for Mail Online, Piers Morgan wrote a letter to his long time friend Donald Trump, following his intention to ban Muslims from US if elected as president.
The letter is quite long though – see Excerpts
Dear Donald,
This is not an easy letter to write.
We’ve been friends for nearly a decade, since I competed in, and won, the first season of your Celebrity Apprentice show.
I hugely admire your talent, energy, chutzpah, determination and sheer force of personality.
In an increasingly politically correct world where the slightest slip of the tongue becomes an offence worthy of public social media execution, your straight-talking and refusal to apologise for anything is a breath of much needed fresh air, especially in the putrid atmosphere of Washington politics.
I also know you to be an incredibly loyal man, to family and friends.
Whenever I’ve been in the news for good or bad reasons, the one thing I can virtually guarantee is that you’ll either send me a note or give me a call to congratulate or commiserate.
Like many in the public eye, I have lots of fair-weather celebrity acquaintances who run a mile when the going gets rough. You’ve never been one of them. In fact, quite the opposite.
I’ve lost count of the number of people, some in very high places, who’ve said to me over the years, ‘I saw Donald Trumplast night and he was singing your praises.’
I can even think of one specific occasion during my time at CNN when you may well have saved my job.
So like I said, this is not an easy letter for me to write, but I’m going to do it anyway because I think it’s the right thing to do.
The best friends, I’ve always believed, are not the ones who agree with everything you say, laugh at all your jokes, or suck up to you with unctuous sycophancy. Though there’s always room for a few of those in one’s life, obviously!
No, the best friends are the ones unafraid to look you in the eye and say: ‘You’re wrong.’
I wasn’t afraid to do that on Celebrity Apprentice and I’m not afraid to do it again now.
Donald, you’re wrong.
Your demand for all Muslims to be banned from America is so completely, utterly and dangerously wrong that I can’t just sit back and say nothing.
It’s not the first time I’ve disagreed with you.
We couldn’t share more different views about gun control, but you’re not alone in your opinion on that issue – at least 200 million Americans agree with you, not me. I understand that gun ownership and the right to bear arms are deeply entrenched parts of U.S. culture.
I watched all the mayhem you caused by insulting John McCain for being captured in Vietnam, and laughed because McCain’s big enough and strong enough to take care of himself which indeed he did.
I saw you being lambasted for abusing Mexicans, but felt on that occasion you stumbled on your words and never intended to imply, as some of your opponents were quick to suggest, that they’re all rapists and murderers.
But this is different.
There are plenty of legitimate arguments to make following the horrendous terror attack by two radicalised Muslims last week that killed 14 people and wounded scores of others.
It is very worrying that nobody seems to have picked up on their festering hatred for America before it was too late.
It’s even more absurd that they were able to build a legally acquired deadly arsenal in their home to commit their atrocity.
I wrote back in June that nobody should under-estimate you, and I was right.
I’ve also persistently supported your candidacy because I think American politics needs a man like you to shake it out of its tired, intransigent, cliché-d state.
There’s now, according to the polls, a very real chance you could be the Republican nominee, and who knows, perhaps even President of the United States.
But you don’t need to be a bigot to get there and that, respectfully, is how you’re now sounding.
America has millions of Muslim citizens who live very peacefully and happily side by side with their fellow Americans.
Your ugly choice of rhetoric will make them vulnerable to attack and stigmatisation, as we have already witnessed since last week’s massacre.
It will only serve to make Americans turn on Americans.
And that, in itself, makes your plan un-American.
It would also play right into ISIS hands, creating the very divide between Muslims and the West that they seek to create and exploit.
Donald, I hope you read this letter in the spirit of friendship in which I write it.
A great man knows when he’s wrong, even if it pains him to admit it.
In many ways, I think you’re a great man.
But on this, you’re badly wrong.
Kind regards
Piers
Source: DailyOnline