Dear President Donald John Trump:
Sir, congratulations on your historic victory. Congratulations on your landslide win, and on your historic role as one of the only United States presidents to serve two non-consecutive terms, preceded only by Grover Cleveland. Your time is now, and you are the man for the time.
As you are president of all of these United States, I come to you as an American citizen and a resident of the one state that is huge in area, but small in population; a state that is rich in resources but for years has struggled with liberal politicians treating our state as a huge national park, and trying their hardest to keep those resources locked away. So, Mr. President, I invite you to come to my home state, to the Great Land, Alaska. There are many reasons to come here, to see the Great Land for yourself.
First: Energy. You are already familiar with Alaska’s energy resources, and we are anticipating that your administration will make Alaska a keystone in making America once more energy independent, with North Slope oil and gas as well as Cook Inlet gas. We also anticipate you will remove barriers to accessing Alaska’s mineral wealth, including copper, tin, gold, silver, lead, and strategic rare earth minerals that we are now buying from countries that are not our friends. America depends on these resources, and Alaska depends on the jobs thus created.
Second: Our fisheries. Cook Inlet, the Gulf of Alaska, and even the Barents Sea are rich in marine resources: Salmon, halibut, Pacific cod, and crabs. People all over the world enjoy the products of Alaska’s vast fisheries, and those fisheries are responsible for many jobs in Alaska.
Third: Our strategic importance. General Billy Mitchell, as I have pointed out many times, described Alaska around 90 years ago as the “most strategic real estate in the world.” He was right then and would be right now. Who controls Alaska controls the Pacific, both the Great Circle air and shipping lanes, and the Pacific entries into the Arctic. Alaska, sir, is the crown of the Pacific, and the Great Land’s strategic importance cannot be overstated.
Fourth and perhaps most of all, Alaska is worth seeing for itself alone. Minnesota, lovely as that state is, brags of its 10,000 lakes; Alaska has three million. Texas is, yes, a big, impressive place, beloved rightly by its residents, but you can drop Texas as well as California and Montana into Alaska, and have room left over for Joe Biden’s Delaware. I’m fond of describing Alaska with four words: Vast, wild, clean, and free. We are truthfully the Last Frontier, especially once you leave Anchorage, get past Big Lake Road, and into what we call “real Alaska.”
We are a land of vast forests, of tundra, of mountains, lakes, rivers, and streams. We have the largest salmon in the world, the Kenai River king salmon. We have the largest bears, both polar bears and the big coastal brown bears. We have the largest of the deer family, the Alaska-Yukon subspecies of the moose. The tundra is home to herds of caribou in their thousands, our rivers and lakes teem with trout, grayling, and char, our forests with grouse, snowshoe hares, and lynx – and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you hear wolves howling in the night.
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Alaska, sir, is a place like no other. It must be seen to be appreciated. It must be seen to be understood. The people of real Alaska, of the small towns, the rural communities, the remote villages, are tough and independent, a picture of America as it once was and could be again. We are your people, Mr. President.
President Trump, this is your time. This is America’s time. Alaska plays a vital role in America’s future. Come, see it for yourself – all of it. I would be honored and delighted to show you around personally.
Respectfully Yours,
Ward Clark
