--- title: Aaron Sorkin Writes Emotional Letter to Daughter After Trump Win description: Like many Americans, Aaron Sorkin, was feeling some type of way after hearing that Donald Trump won the presidential election. canonical: https://time.com/4566175/aaron-sorkin-daughter-letter-trump/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-10T20:52:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:35.783Z og:title: Aaron Sorkin Writes Open Letter to Daughter After Trump Win og:description: "We’re not powerless and we’re not voiceless" og:url: https://time.com/4566175/aaron-sorkin-daughter-letter-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80d35a41d0ac165d/6988adfa8e06015838468367/aaron-sorkin-open-letter-daughtr-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Premiere Of Sony Pictures' "Ghostbusters" - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Aaron Sorkin Writes Open Letter to Daughter After Trump Win twitter:description: "We’re not powerless and we’re not voiceless" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80d35a41d0ac165d/6988adfa8e06015838468367/aaron-sorkin-open-letter-daughtr-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Aaron Sorkin's Emotional Letter to His Wife and Daughter After Trump's Presidential Win > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Nov 10, 2016 8:52 PM UTC  Aaron Sorkin attends the premiere of Sony Pictures' 'Ghostbusters' on July 9, 2016 in Hollywood, California.(Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) Aaron Sorkin attends the premiere of Sony Pictures' 'Ghostbusters' on July 9, 2016 in Hollywood, California.(Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage)JB Lacroix—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Nov 10, 2016 8:52 PM UTC Like many Americans, [Aaron Sorkin](http://time.com/4746/aaron-sorkin-philip-seymour-hoffmans-death-saved-10-lives/), had an emotional reaction to learning that [Donald Trump won the presidential election](http://time.com/4563685/donald-trump-wins/). Unlike many Americans, however, Sorkin took to expressing his emotions after hearing the results via a very public platform: an open, heartfelt letter to his 15-year-old daughter Roxy and his wife Julia in [_Vanity Fair_](http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/11/aaron-sorkin-donald-trump-president-letter-daughter)_._ The result is just as epic as one might expect from the man who brought us [_The West Wing_ ](http://time.com/4378212/west-wing-presidential-endorsement-2016/)and _The Newsroom_; in the emotional letter, he doesn’t mince his words to express the range of feelings he’s felt since hearing that Trump was president elect. While Sorkin spends some of the letter lamenting the attitudes that have characterized the Trump campaign, the majority of his letter is spent looking to the future, in which he maps out a plan of action, which range from recognizing that others feel similarly to using checks and balances effectively. “We’re not powerless and we’re not voiceless,” he writes. “We get involved. We do what we can to fight injustice anywhere we see it—whether it’s writing a check or rolling up our sleeves. Our family is fairly insulated from the effects of a Trump presidency so we fight for the families that aren’t. We fight for a woman to keep her right to choose. We fight for the First Amendment and we fight mostly for equality—not for a guarantee of equal outcomes but for equal opportunities. We stand up.” Sorkin ends the powerful letter by promising his daughter that he will ensure that by the time she votes for a presidential candidate, she won’t have “a country shaped by hateful and stupid men.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4566175/aaron-sorkin-daughter-letter-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4566175/aaron-sorkin-daughter-letter-trump/"},"headline":"Read Aaron Sorkin's Emotional Letter to His Wife and Daughter After Trump's Presidential Win","datePublished":"2016-11-10T20:52:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:35.783Z","description":"\"We’re not powerless and we’re not voiceless\"","url":"https://time.com/4566175/aaron-sorkin-daughter-letter-trump/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Election","aaron sorkin","celebrity","Election 2016","Donald Trump","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80d35a41d0ac165d/6988adfa8e06015838468367/aaron-sorkin-open-letter-daughtr-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt80d35a41d0ac165d/6988adfa8e06015838468367/aaron-sorkin-open-letter-daughtr-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Premiere Of Sony Pictures' \"Ghostbusters\" - Arrivals","caption":"Premiere Of Sony Pictures' \"Ghostbusters\" - Arrivals","creditText":"JB Lacroix—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4566175/aaron-sorkin-daughter-letter-trump/","name":"Read Aaron Sorkin's Emotional Letter to His Wife and Daughter After Trump's Presidential Win"}}]}] ```