Trump Sonnets

More about Ken Waldman, More about Trump Sonnets, and an essay

Want to know more about Ken Waldman?

Click this Ken Waldman link for a whole website about the music, the writing, the kids' programs, the roots
music variety shows, and more. If you need to see his vita, it's right here.

Here's a short Ken Waldman bio:

Ken Waldman combines Appalachian-style string-band music, original poetry, and Alaska-set storytelling for a
performance uniquely his. Twelve CDs include two for for children. Twenty-four books include three kids' books, a memoir (about his life as a touring artist), fifteen full-length poetry collections, a novel, a short story collection, and a hybrid book that's part creative writing manual, part memoir, part poetry collection. He's appeared at leading performing arts centers, concert series, colleges, festivals, and clubs throughout North America.

Want to know more about this Trump Sonnets project?

Click this link to get to the successful May 15-July 4, 2018 Kickstarter campaign. If you want the more complete story,
be sure to take time to read the description and updates.

A three-paragraph summary--and then a whole essay (written in summer 2025):

The day after the 2016 November presidential election, Ken Waldman jotted a phrase: Before long, this guy would
would make George W. look like a statesman. That insight led to a sonnet, which led to dozens more. By mid-December,
Ken Waldman had enough for Trump Sonnets, Volume 1, which Ridgeway Press of Roseville, Michigan immediately
published, and which Ken Waldman had in his hands by the inauguration.

That book led to Trump Sonnets, Volume 2, which Ken Waldman wrote while on tour in spring 2017. Summer 2017,
he wrote an essay, "Donald Trump is My Muse," to try and explain the deluge of poems. His stage show titled "Trump
Sonnets or: How I've Taken on Donald Trump (and Won)" features these poems. From fall 2017 to spring 2018, he
wrote Trump Sonnets, Volume 3. The stage show has continued to evolve to reflect the new work.

People asked if there would be a Volume 4. Yes, Ken Waldman answered, saying that he'd been doing his job as an
engaged citizen. Trump Sonnets, Volume 4 was released in early 2020. Volume 5? Ken Waldman spent mid-March to
mid-April 2020 holed up writing virus-inspired poems. Trump Sonnets, Volume 5 was in his hands by summer 2020
for an early 2021 publication date. Volumes 6 and 7 and 8 are also now out. You can find Volume 9 right here.

What else? Here's an essay from summer 2025 that explains how Ken Waldman started all this, and where he's taken this:

Summer 2025: What Can We Do?

When I lead writing workshops, one of my handouts is a page of short quotes from well-known writers explaining how they begin a new piece. It's no surprise that their processes differ, and are often directly at odds with one another. They've learned to do what works for them.

We each have our own way to stay active and engaged in this historic, tumultuous time.

While I'm not going to phone legislators or send daily emails, you might. And while I'm probably not going to attend larger protests, you might (and might even be organizing one).

Wednesday morning, November 9, 2016. I was sitting in my car, Bowling Green, Kentucky, prior to meetings that were to precede a week-and-a-half of school visits in the area. As I listened to radio reports from the previous day's presidential election, I took out a notebook, and wrote “this guy is going to make George W. look like a statesman.”

Sometime in the next weeks, I grew that line into a sonnet. Then I wrote another. Early December I visited a friend in Buenos Aires. She had a small apartment in a rough neighborhood, no Wifi, and I didn't speak the language. My friend slept late. To busy myself, every morning I wrote sonnets about this incoming president. The first of these I addressed to him. As I continued, just as many were in his voice. When I returned to the States, mid December, I saw that if I could write another fifteen or twenty, I'd have a full collection; if I wrote them quickly, I'd have a book for the January inauguration.

I phoned a writer friend who was also a publisher and read a few of the poems. He accepted the collection, I wrote more poems, and the first week of 2017 we found a printer who could print and ship our run within a week. We immediately sent them out for review, got them to the distributor, and hand-sold as we could. Titling it Trump Sonnets, Volume 1 was one of the jokes of the satiric collection.

If I'd tried to get that collection published traditionally, it would undoubtedly still be unpublished, and that would have been the end of it. But since Trump wasn't stopping, neither would I because I had a publisher. Before the end of 2017, I had copies of Trump Sonnets Volume 2 subtitled 33 Commentaries, 33 Dreams. For that one, in addition to commenting on 2017 current affairs, I imagined Trump reciting his dreams.

It felt like a calling, writing sonnets in response to this president. When friends told me about a 2017 trip to Ireland, and a sheepherder who, when asking about the U.S. President, exclaimed he's a bully boy, a bully boy, your president's a bully boy, I took that sheepherder's voice, turned it into a sonnet, and realized I could imagine disparate voices from all over the world. So I did, which led to Trump Sonnets, Volume 3, The International Edition. Reading Terrance Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin indirectly helped me with Trump Sonnets, Volume 4, The Shrunken Soul Edition. From midnight to midnight, on the hour, every sonnet was in Trump's voice, and every one began with the exact hour, and the words “and this is my shrunken soul.” The rest of the poems were in the voices of others in Donald Trump's orbit, from random times throughout the day.

Writing these poems, which indeed, felt like a calling, allowed me to continue my days confident that this presidency was a temporary thing. No matter that the books barely got reviewed. No matter the publisher and distributor were small, with no budget to market the books. No matter that 99.999% of the anti-Trumpers out there, the more obvious and receptive readers, were sick of the man, and never wanted to hear his name again. There was still the .001%, which was still a lot of people. From the beginning of this project, I've met people who were super-enthused about what I was writing, and wondered why they hadn't heard of these books before. It's a long story, I'd say, and offered deals to those buying multiple books.

Mid-March through early May 2020, taking pandemic refuge in rural southwest Virginia where I'd been on tour, I wrote Trump Sonnets, Volume 5, His Early Virus Monologues. Every poem was in the president's voice, and every poem was titled by number. I was up to “Trump Sonnets #375.” June 2020 I wrote one long sonnet sequence in his voice, Trump Sonnets, Volume 6, His Middle Virus Soliloquy. And the next months I wrote Trump Sonnets, Volume 7, His Further Virus Monologues. November 2021, I began Trump Sonnets, Volume 8, The Final Four Months, in which I imagined voices from all 50 states, a wide range of occupations.

That collection was in my hands by March. As the country gradually reopened, I had a relationship end, and in July I went back on the road full-time, and have been touring full-time since in support of this project, and other recent work. A musician and band leader, I also have twelve CDs, and often work in schools offering interdisciplinary programs.

Thanks to a one-month residency at the Wolff Cottage in Fairhope, Alabama, I finished Trump Sonnets, Volume 9, started in April 2021, when it was subtitled The Fall of the House of Trump. Now it's The House of Trump. The Trump family hasn't fallen yet, but they will. Volume 9, the only one not in book form, can be found online at www.trumpsonnets.com.

This second presidency has been a surprise. Back in November 2024 I thought three things might come of it. It might be really, really bad. Or it might be worse than really, really bad. Or else it might be so chaotic as to not be as bad as it could have been. July 2025 now, it's turning out to be a mix of two and three. There's no foreseeable bottom to what this government might do, producing worldwide chaos. I wouldn't put anything past them. And until it gets better, as I'm positive it eventually will, it's going to get worse.

What can we do?

We'll each do what we must. As a writer, I'll continue staying vigilant despite the challenges of touring full-time in these uncertain days. The past years I've applied, unsuccessfully, for major fellowships to give me time and space to finish these sonnets. I have a last volume to write, Trump Sonnets, Volume 10, The Ghost Edition, where I'll write in the voices of Donald Trump's deceased parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, siblings, his late ex-wife. I'll also write in the voices of every deceased U.S. President. What would Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Lincoln have to say? And what about Andrew Jackson, William McKinley, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon? That would put the whole series in deeper historic context, I think (and keep me productive and sane). Indeed, it's the writing that has kept me sane the past eight and a half years. Still, just as I eventually found time to write Volume 9, which took a more sustained effort, I'll somehow find time to write Volume 10, and finish this.

Meanwhile, I continue to do what feels right. No, I'm not phoning legislators or sending daily emails. And aside from a midweek gathering in Juneau in April when I was in town there, I haven't attended protests. Saturday, June 14, a day of national protests, instead of protesting I was leading a morning writing workshop, then doing an afternoon program at a small town North Carolina library. But mid February, four months earlier, I woke one morning in a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania motel room, decided I ought to directly write to my two United States senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and typed a note that would fit on a postcard-sized sheet in 12 point Times Roman font:

To my two U.S. Senators, Lisa Murkowski

and Dan Sullivan, and to all other U.S. Senators:

The past weeks, as the U.S. government is being

systematically dismantled by Donald Trump and

Elon Musk, I'm embarrassed not only to be an

American, but to be an Alaskan represented in

the U.S. Senate by two members of the party

overseeing the destruction.

You've continued to enable Donald Trump (and

Elon Musk) in myriad ways, now by confirming

men and women into powerful positions that

will advance the deep corruption and illegalities.

At best, it's chaos. At worst, it's beyond traitorous

what you're on board with. If somehow you aren't

in agreement, by remaining in the Republican

party as overseers, you are cowards (which still

makes you both enablers and traitors).

Embarrassed? I'm also sad and angry there's a 9/11-

like catastrophe perpetrated from within the White

House with the support of a Republican senate.

The instability of the past three weeks, and the

global mess ahead: that's directly on you.

------Ken Waldman, Alaska resident, U.S. Citizen

I not only hand-wrote addresses on one hundred envelopes, but I hand-wrote a note on the back of the small sheet to every senator. To the Republicans, I wrote that if someone like me was writing this, someone who only once before had ever directly written to all U.S. Senators, there were many millions more who felt similarly. To the Democrats and Independents I shared what I'd written to the Republicans and asked them to do everything in their power to reverse this assault on our U.S. government.

In June, following that day of nationwide protests, I felt called to write this follow-up:

To the one hundred United States Senators:

I wrote four months ago, and mentioned then that I don't

ordinarily contact government representatives directly—

and if I'm writing, there are millions who feel similarly.

I'm well aware of the ongoing cuts to medical care, medical

research, veterans' services, to NOAA, FEMA, the IRS, to

our national parks, to arts and humanities, to aid for the

disabled and the poor, and to the dismissals of so many civil

servants. Also, the vendettas against universities, law firms,

and to those from other lands who have come in good faith

to contribute to our societal good. This administration has

invaded how most of us here want to live. It's an act of war.

Because this administration is making some already

desperate people more desperate, people will push back in

various ways. You've seen the town halls and other protests.

An observation: there are a lot of guns out there. Some of

the desperate ones—with no prior record— will strike back

with guns against those they blame. This is beyond politics.

People are angry and hurting. It's your majority that has

enabled our current events. There already have been random

shootings—the health care CEO, the Israeli consulate pair—

and I imagine more will come. Politicians, journalists,

judges would be the most likely targets. That includes you.

Ukraine just successfully attacked Russian bombers via

drones. We're all unsafe because of this administration's

harmful policies, which your legislative body has allowed.

I ask you to rein in this administration. It's a dark time, and

with guns and drones it's going to get darker unless you act.

--Ken Waldman

This letter was in 10.5 Point Times New Roman. Again I hand-wrote addresses on an envelope, and again I hand-wrote one hundred notes. To the Republicans, in addition to again mentioning that if I was writing, there were many millions more who felt similarly, I hand-wrote: Your support of the current administration endangers every U.S. citizen, including your colleagues and constituents.

To the Democrats and Independents I shared what I'd written to the Republicans, and again asked them to do everything in their power to reverse this assault on our government and our country.

I take no satisfaction that I wrote this before the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles, and before the murders of the Minnesota State House Representative, Melissa Hortman, and her husband. The June mailing has already felt prescient. We're all endangered.

Before mailing, I mulled about writing more personally to some Republican senators—Josh Hawley, Mitch McConnell, Joni Ernst, for example— while I had the chance, though decided to keep it more neutral (though I did add a few lines to one of my senators, Lisa Murkowski, to ask whether she might potentially influence a few of her more moderate Republican colleagues; I also clipped two sheets from a university alumni magazine—I graduated from the same school as a Republican senator, who was briefly profiled in the most recent issue--and asked whether the senator realized that tacit support for attacks on Harvard and Columbia makes it more likely similar attacks will be launched against our alma mater. I also wrote to Senator Alex Padilla to say I was sorry for what had happened to him in Los Angeles, which had occurred as I was getting this mailing into the postal mail; I thanked him for his service, and again asked him to keep at it).

Sure, it can feel Sisyphean, hand-writing letters to be read by staffers, not by the senators themselves. But it's something, and something that I can do amid the touring, amid bigger projects that take much more time. And most of all it's something that feels right to me, along with writing this essay.

What can any one of us do?

We all do what we can, and what we must. That's our power.