--- title: Leslie Knope Writes Letter to America After Donald Trump Win description: Read Leslie Knope's letter to young girls after Donald Trump's ascendance to the presidency. canonical: https://time.com/4567871/leslie-knope-open-letter-donald-trump/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-11T17:02:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:50.504Z og:title: Leslie Knope Calls on Women to Stand Up to Donald Trump og:description: 'Bust out' og:url: https://time.com/4567871/leslie-knope-open-letter-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a0b147d2b11d73/6988ae2eab6d7717b56abecf/leslie-knope-letter-to-america-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Parks and Recreation - Season 6 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Leslie Knope Calls on Women to Stand Up to Donald Trump twitter:description: 'Bust out' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a0b147d2b11d73/6988ae2eab6d7717b56abecf/leslie-knope-letter-to-america-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Leslie Knope Calls on Women to Stand Up to Donald Trump > Sponsored content. 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There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f21784ec-9dfb-44ff-bce9-771b59979758&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Nov 11, 2016 5:02 PM UTC  "Fluoride" Episode 608 -- Pictured: Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope -- (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) "Fluoride" Episode 608 -- Pictured: Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope -- (Photo by: Tyler Golden/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Nov 11, 2016 5:02 PM UTC Leslie Knope, the Hillary Clinton-esque politician portrayed by Amy Poehler in comedy _Parks in Rec,_ doesn’t want young girls to be discouraged by [Donald Trump’s ascendance to the presidency](http://time.com/4566063/how-will-donald-trump-govern/?xid=homepage). Knope (read: a member of the NBC show’s writing staff) wrote an open letter [for Vox](http://www.vox.com/first-person/2016/11/10/13580582/leslie-knope-donald-trump) apologizing to young girls for the results of the election and vowing to fight back against the misogyny that has been engrained in this election cycle. Trump faced frequent criticism throughout [the campaign for his treatment of women](http://motto.time.com/4565567/donald-trump-women-election/). That scrutiny heightened last month [after the Washington _Post_ released a 2005 tape](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-recorded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4%5Fstory.html?hpid=hp%5Fhp-top-table-main%5Ftrumptape-404pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory) that showed Trump bragging about how he could do anything he wanted to women — without their consent — because he’s a celebrity. “Our president-elect is everything you should abhor and fear in a male role model. He has spent his life telling you, and girls and women like you, that your lives are valueless except as sexual objects,” Knope writes. “He has demeaned you, and belittled you, and put you in a little box to be looked at and not heard. It is your job, and the job of girls and women like you, to bust out.” The letter ends with a message that echoes what Clinton said to young girls [in her concession speech](http://motto.time.com/4564715/hillary-clinton-concedes-election-donald-trump/?iid=sr-link4): “you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.” “You will not be cowed or discouraged by his stream of retrogressive babble. You won’t have time to be cowed, because you will be too busy working and learning and communing with other girls and women like you. And when the time comes, you will effortlessly flick away his miserable, petty, misogynistic worldview like a fly on your picnic potato salad,” she writes. “He is the present, sadly, but he is not the future. You are the future. Your strength is a million times his. Your power is a billion times his. We will acknowledge this result, but we will not accept it. We will overcome it, and we will defeat it.” “Now find your team, and get to work,” she adds. Read the [full letter on Vox](http://www.vox.com/first-person/2016/11/10/13580582/leslie-knope-donald-trump). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4567871/leslie-knope-open-letter-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4567871/leslie-knope-open-letter-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Leslie Knope Calls on Women to Stand Up to Donald Trump","datePublished":"2016-11-11T17:02:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:50.504Z","description":"'Bust out'","url":"https://time.com/4567871/leslie-knope-open-letter-donald-trump/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a0b147d2b11d73/6988ae2eab6d7717b56abecf/leslie-knope-letter-to-america-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a0b147d2b11d73/6988ae2eab6d7717b56abecf/leslie-knope-letter-to-america-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Parks and Recreation - Season 6","caption":"Parks and Recreation - Season 6","creditText":"NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","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/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4567871/leslie-knope-open-letter-donald-trump/","name":"Leslie Knope Calls on Women to Stand Up to Donald Trump"}}]}] ```