9 September 2020: Letter to President Trump

Dear President Trump,

There is a lot to do and not that much time so I hope you and your friends are paying attention. Here are the facts: (a) You are likely to lose the election badly. The polls are consistent and there are no outliers to even give you hope. Pretty soon, Republicans are going to "jump ship" and start distancing themselves from you. Sure, a miracle is possible, but unlikely; (b) you are deteriorating mentally and physically. As a pathologist and attorney (retired) who used to do competency hearings, I think there is a legitimate question whether you are legally competent because: you cannot separate your delusions from reality, you cannot remember what you said or did a few days ago, you cannot learn from others, you cannot conform your conduct to the law, and you cannot consistently tell the truth; (c) you have a tremendous amount of criminal and civil liability for current and "in the works" investigations.

My conclusion is that you need to: (a) plan to resign soon as President, (b) negotiate with the Governor and Attorney General of New York regarding the State crimes, which are not covered by pardons, (c) discuss your situation with the Vice President, (d) start making plans with your family regarding your media network and memoirs while you have the capacity to do so. If you wait until closer to the election, or after the election, you will lose your negotiating power with New York.

You cannot make all the bad things go away, but you can lessen their impact. Get some good, institutional D.C. lawyers to negotiate for you (not Rudy Gulliani), plan to resign, make plans for your network and hire some ghost writers.

The clock is ticking.

Nat Pernick, M.D.