Email for 'Let's go Brandon' hat in the middle of the night awakens disgust, anger

I don’t know about you, but I receive way too many solicitations for political donations. These come by email, text, snail mail, ads attached to network news, and any other way that can possibly catch my attention. It gets old after a while.

Granted, I do send a bit of money to some of them. The ones I support are the ones that I know legitimately go to electing a candidate who mirrors my beliefs and government policies. Some solicitations are not what they seem, especially those from organizations of which I have never heard.

But there is one that has become all too familiar to me. Its solicitations never seem to end. They are from a con man who lusts after other people’s money. Donald Trump recently emailed me in the middle of the night with an announcement that apparently couldn’t wait until daybreak.

Yes, I could put my cellphone on silent or simply ignore emails I get at night, but I have a lot of kids and they have their own families and sometimes things happen. That’s why I leave the cellphone on to make certain that I am available in the event of an occasional emergency.

The other night when I heard my cell phone make that “here is an email for you” sound, I rolled over, felt around for my glasses, put them on, picked up my cellphone off the nightstand, squinted at the screen as best I could, and read the message.

“I designed a BRAND NEW HAT, and I want YOU to see it first.”

What? It’s the middle of the night. Donald Trump can’t wait until tomorrow morning to email me, because he’s so excited that he personally designed a new hat. And right now, in the middle of my sleep time, he is “offering it exclusively” to me emblazoned with “a terrific” three-word message … “Let’s Go Brandon!”

Further, Donald Trump wrote to me that his new hat was “Guaranteed to trigger the Libs.” And it can be all mine if, within the next hour, I donate $45 or more to his Save America joint fundraising committee.

You have to be kidding. It’s the middle of the night. Is this guy crazy? He awakened me to hawk a hat. And he has the audacity to ask me to crawl out of bed to send my credit card number to him so he can get $45, and I can wear a hat which, at best, is overpriced and, at worst, is the most disrespectful thing I can imagine.

It’s not that I love President Biden so much, but I do love my country and respect its institutions, our democracy and the will of the people. That’s the same people who elected Joe Biden to be our president to serve a four year term, until he is reelected to a new term or someone else is elected in his stead. That’s the way our democracy works.

By now I’m awake and not happy. And since I’m already awake with the cellphone in my hand, I decided to look at my trash folder. It seemed to me that I had seen an ad for this same hat previously.

So I searched the trash folder. Sure enough, there was not one, but several emails from Donald Trump offering this same hat with “Let’s Go Brandon!” emblazoned on it. And, guess what, it was $45 then as it is now. And I had only an hour to buy it last time as well. And the time before. And the time before that. And that was only in the last month or so!

All I could think of was why Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, would have the arrogance to awaken me in the middle of the night to sell me an overpriced hat that is disrespectful to the office of the president. If that wasn’t bad enough, my wife woke up and wanted to know if the kids were all OK.

I told her that they were and, angry as I was, I told her what had happened. She is not a happy camper when awakened in the middle of the night without a good reason. And this certainly was not a good reason. I would like to say she was irritated, but that wouldn’t cover it. By now, the dog was also awake and wanting to go outside.

I got out of bed, put on my robe, turned off the security system, open the door, and let the dog out. He went onto the back porch, sat down, and stared at the moon. A half hour passed, and I become increasingly angry at the selfishness of Donald Trump.

When the dog finally did his business and came back in the house, he jumped onto the bed and plunked down right where I sleep. After a pushing match and some mutual growling, he moved a bit toward the center.

Eventually I squeezed back into the sliver of space the dog left me. My wife was thoroughly awake now and couldn't get back to sleep. She started reading a book. I couldn't get back to sleep either. So I went to the kitchen. Maybe a glass of milk and a cookie would do the trick. Well? No cookies in the house.

Back to bed I went. By now the lights are on, the dog wants to play, and the wife doesn’t — all due to an asinine, self-centered, money-grubbing former president who could care less how his idiotic email attempting to obtain money from me affects my life.

I read the email again. It opened with a lie. Donald Trump called me “Friend.” Friends don’t wake friends in the middle of the night to sell an overpriced hat. Oh, and I discovered the small print. For the same low price of $45, he offered me a chance to obtain a “Let’s Go Brandon” flag. And lucky me, I could also buy a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt as long as I responded within the hour.

Well, over an hour had already passed since Donald Trump awakened me with his offer. I must have disappointed him since his email said that he was “exclusively offering” me the deal. I looked at my wife. She asked me, “What?” I told her that the hour was up and we missed the deal. She didn’t think it was funny, and she just glared.

Now, thanks to Donald Trump, I’ll never get those hours of sleep back.

Oh, and by the way, "Let’s Go Brandon” was initiated as code that uses an expletive and the current president's name following a NASCAR race in Alabama. As a sports reporter was interviewing race winner Brandon Brown, the crowd began to chant the phrase using the obscene language. The reporter for NBC said, "You can hear the chants from the crowd, 'Let's go, Brandon!'" according to a story by NPR. It's unclear if the reporter heard what they were really saying and tried to cover it up during the television broadcast.

This is the level that Donald Trump has taken us: schoolyard taunts, the dehumanization of political opponents, open contempt for common decency as well as for the institutions of democracy, and self-serving emails in the middle of the night.

If Trump is so disrespectful of our government, and is so crass as to wear a hat that has a clear and vulgar meaning to everyone — including children — who see it, then he should. Because wearing that hat says everything I need to know about him.

And don’t wake me in the middle of the night to try to sell me one.

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx software coordinates and drives communication, specifying, approval, procurement or production, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, marketing materials, promo and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com.

This article originally appeared on Chambersburg Public Opinion: Late-night Trump merchandise email sparks loathing