Welcome to Southeast Missouri, Mr. President

Dear Mr. President Trump,

Welcome to Cape Girardeau.

Thousands of supporters from our city and miles beyond will flood the Show Me Center tonight. Most of them are your supporters. Some 70 percent of this part of the state supported your presidency and most still support your ideals.

Some will also come today to protest your work and your words. This will be no surprise to you, as you see that at all your public events. But most will arrive to support you, which we expect is a major reason you chose to end your midterm campaign tour in our city. In fact, the 8th Congressional District ranked seventh among the 435 districts in the country in terms of your support. We expect your fans and voters will show up early and wait hours to see you, possibly in the rain to get a glimpse of the world leader. It's a big deal for the president of the United States to visit our small-but-growing city. You'll be just the fourth active president to stop here, and the first in 22 years.

Cape Girardeau is an interesting mix of people, and so is the surrounding area. You'll be addressing businessmen, small-business owners, union workers, farmers, ranchers, doctors, officers, professors, retirees, rich people, poor people, conservatives and liberals and folks in between. Even journalists. We have more than 50 places of worship in a 20-mile radius, from a wide range of denominations. Our city's most famous native, national radio host Rush Limbaugh, helped get you elected, promoting conservatism for decades to his millions of listeners. But we have other high-profile folks, too: Our fine public university has also produced a female astronaut and a famous African-American comedian and actor. Our university hosts many international students of many backgrounds, all of whom chose America for their education, and some of whom may want to join our nation as citizens some day.

We have people dealing with health issues and a small army of those who treat our health.

Our university president is a new citizen of the United States, originally from Mexico, after having attained a Ph.D. in physics and aerospace science and holding down several university jobs across the United States over a couple of decades. We have doctors employed at our hospitals from across the world.

One of the reasons our population overwhelmingly supported you last election is because you were different. You were not scared to shake things up, to buck the status quo. Your maverick persona appealed, and you have carried that throughout your presidency so far. We have seen your fight lead to economic benefits and lower taxes. We continue to observe and hope your tough rhetoric and deal-making will bring benefits and prosperity to our workers and farmers.

We hope your message will inspire those in our city and the country. We hope you will leave inspired by the people you meet here.

Thank you, Mr. President, for stopping in Cape Girardeau. It will be a day we will not forget any time soon.