David Lynch famously hates having to explain himself, preferring instead to let some confounding nonsense on Twin Peaks or in his movies stand on its own, but that was before he came up against the wall of mindlessness that is Donald Trump. Recently, Lynch offered an ill-conceived and easily misunderstood comment on the United States’ current political mess, noting that Trump could be “one of the greatest presidents in history” because he has disrupted the current system so much that he (or, more likely, someone else) could now come in and reshape the federal government into something that truly works the way it’s supposed to. He didn’t really say that he thought Trump was doing a good job, just that he thought he had the potential to do good things if he really tried, but it really did seem like a cautiously positive assessment of how Trump has been doing so far.
As part of his ongoing (and very stupid) feud with Jimmy Fallon, Trump tried to show that he still has some support among the elites of the entertainment industry by sharing an article about Lynch’s comment from some far-right conspiracy blog that will go unnamed here, prompting Lynch to come out and do the one thing he never does: Explain what he meant. In an open letter to Trump posted on Facebook, Lynch says that he “will not have a chance to go down in history as a great president” if he continues going down his current path, noting that he is “causing suffering and division.”
Thankfully, the post makes it clear that Lynch doesn’t really support Trump, but he still seems stunningly optimistic about this whole thing. At the end of his letter, Lynch says that it’s “not too late to turn the ship around” and point the country “toward a bright future for all.” He says Trump’s “soul will sing” if he actually tries to unite people, even though it seems absurd to suggest that Trump has a soul, and that “everybody wins” when they have “great loving leadership.” Lynch says he hopes Trump takes his clarification to heart and changes his wicked ways, but we probably have a better shot at another season of Twin Peaks than we do at Trump actually deciding to quit being such an evil piece of shit.