Berkeley professor's resignation letter to Trump is acrostic that spells 'IMPEACH'

BERKELEY, Calif. (KTVU) - A professor at University of California at Berkeley resigned his position at the U.S. Department of State over President Donald Trump's response to the deadly "Unite the Right" rally earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"My decision to resign is in response to your attacks on core values of the United States," wrote Daniel Kammen, now former science envoy to the State Department, in an open letter to the president.

Kammen, 55, is a professor of energy and the director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab at UC Berkeley.

Trump's failure to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis has international ramifications, according to Kammen, and he stands with numerous other politicians who have issued clear statements on the matter.

"Particularly troubling to me is how your response to Charlottesville is consistent with a broader pattern of behavior that enables sexism and racism, and disregards the welfare of all Americans, the global community and the planet," Kammen wrote.

"Your actions to date have, sadly, harmed the quality of life in the United States, our standing abroad and the sustainability of the planet," Kammen wrote.

"It was really when the President of the United States pulled out of the Paris agreement that I began to question, 'Is this administration going in the right direction?'" Kammen told KTVU on Wednesday.  

Despite the scathing excerpts from Kammen's letter, much of the coverage of the letter of resignation has focused on an acrostic spelling "IMPEACH" with the first letters of each paragraph.

As of this afternoon, Kammen was on Twitter retweeting headlines from national news outlets that focused on the acrostic.

Kammen first served in President Clinton's administration in 1996. He contributed to work on climate change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. 

The physicist was appointed science envoy just under a year ago by President Obama's administration.

"As the husband of an African American wife, therefore, the father of two African American mixed daughters, I just don't see my science envoy work going in a direction that is consistent with the bad direction that Mr. Trump is taking," he said.

Kammen says when it comes to impeachment, he's not speaking about it in legal terms or as a member of Congress would.  He says President Trump's actions have caused harm in the U.S. and our standing abroad. 

Read the full letter of resignation here.