Dear Editor,
Grand larceny on unimaginable scale is happening before our eyes. Our country is being broken and stolen. Some Americans can’t admit it. This unprecedented scale of presidential theft is thinly obscured by Trump’s bombastic boasting—his daily distractions of increasingly disgraceful announcements and shocking self-dealing schemes like his latest effort to use the US Department of Justice to create an “anti-weaponization fund” to reimburse violent offenders he favors, including himself, and relieve his family from any future IRS scrutiny forever. Really unbelievable trying to put himself so far above the law! Some watchdogs like Public Citizens confront Trump’s criminal regime with a deluge of lawsuits. Let’s hope the US’s democracy can survive this ferocious stress test.
Some Americans “cleverly” proposed to run America “like a business.” Trump is forcing his own version of this on America. But democratic government is the non-profit side of society. We need functioning public schools, law enforcement, fire suppression, research etc.—not stripped-down versions that fail to excel and instead make America “ungreat.” Trump’s favored criteria for cuts are social support systems like SNAP, endangering the health of future generations. Trump also cuts research documenting the effects of the greatest threat to mankind besides nuclear war–global warming. The US Agency for International Development and the diplomatic corps were scalped so viciously and indiscriminately that many let go had to be rehired. Trump’s partner-in-crime–the richest man on earth, Elon Musk, bragged about taking a chainsaw to our government while illegally mining Americans’ personal and professional data. Corrupt self-dealing and threats are involved in virtually every presidential action. This is the result of empowering a malignant narcissist with the most powerful position on Earth who ran on popular anti-war positions that he is currently running away from, doing a “180” on all his campaign promises and even admitting that he doesn’t care about the effects on Americans’ pocket books. He lives up to the true meaning of “trump” by carrying out the biggest scam in history.
Trump and “Secretary of War,” Pete Hegseth, proposed streamlining government to a war machine. We are left with a dysfunctional shell as Trump and his sycophantic cohorts suck the vast equity out of our country. Economist Ben Norton states that the billionaires don’t have enough money to complete their build out of DATA centers, so they got Wall Street to change the rules to allow Tech billionaires to access our 401 K retirement funds more easily. Please beware.
It is not too early to conclude that President Trump’s only priority is to use his office to enrich “Trump Inc.” He supports Israel’s infliction of a genocidal attack on Gaza while he plans to build a mini-empire there to enrich himself and his cronies. This conspiracy, together with the unprovoked attack on Iran, opposes the US’s national interest, suggesting that Israel is in possession of blackmail info that even master media manipulator Trump cannot spin into “virtue.”
Trump stupidly abrogated the Iran Nuclear Deal in his first term, a deal which would have left no doubt that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons. And now he tries to justify this hapless backfiring effort by endlessly warning that “Iran must not have nukes.” Every attempt Trump now makes to extricate himself from the war is viciously sabotaged by Israel who is on a rampage–recently wiping out 30 entire Lebanese villages (despite Trump’s so-called warning to stop) and now attacking Southern Beirut in violation of Israel’s ceasefire with Lebanon. The upshot of Trump’s new low in strategic disaster is Iranian control of the Hormuz Strait and rumors that Iran now has nukes. Trump is a traitor to honest, rule-of-law governance and to our country which now faces an unsustainable $40 trillion debt for a string of endless pro-Israel wars for a “Greater Israel.”
We can rebuild our government, but our future depends on Americans comprehending, then definitively ending Trump’s reign of error.
-Cynthia Munley
Salem
