Trump Exhaustion

To the editor:

As we suffer through the second administration of Donald Trump, most Americans are no longer shocked by the craziness and the chaos. They are exhausted by it.

Against all evidence and reason, including multiple verdicts by federal judges, President Trump still maintains that the 2020 election was stolen. The failed attempted coup by a mob on January 6, 2021, encouraged by a lawless President Trump, to attack the Capitol to stop the confirmation that Joe Biden was lawfully elected president of the United States, is a shameful stain on our history. The damage done to the voters’ confidence in our elections may be irreparable. The final outrage was President Trump’s pardon of the thugs who had desecrated the peoples’ house. He called the criminals patriots and said he loved them.

President Trump has shown, again and again, that he places himself above the law and the norms of the sacred office he temporarily occupies. His speeches are rambling and incoherent. He is an embarrassment to our country. His middle-of-the-night social media posts are usually diatribes of personal insults, nonsensical claims, and absurd exaggerations. His staff often have to walk back and try to make sense of these posts. President Trump has chosen people for cabinet positions and heads of various agencies and departments who support him in all decisions whether good for the American people or not. Loyalty, not competence or expertise, is what President demands in the people he appoints.

Not only are the American people confused and angry, but world leaders-former close allies-are talking about not being able to count on America for its leadership as they have since World War II. Mexico, Canada, Australia, and the European Union are making trade and defense agreements that do not include the United States. That is a disaster for the United States and a bonus for China. And Russia loves it.

Good leadership in our country requires discipline and respect for the rule of law. What we often see from President Trump instead is grievance, retaliation, lies, incoherence, and chaos. This president uses the enormous powers of his office to take revenge against Americans exercising their First Amendment rights of free speech, free press, and free assembly. He makes every attempt to increase his power and his personal wealth.

President Trump has failed to keep his promises of transparency about the Epstein files. Trump’s supporters were told to expect that all documents connected to Epstein’s case would be released quickly and completely. Congress bilaterally demanded the release of the Epstein files. Instead, most records have been delayed, redacted, or kept sealed. The redaction of the names of the wealthy and elite but not the redaction of the names and photos of victims has sparked outrage. Trump is not able to escape the speculation that he and his enablers must be hiding something.

The president has also worked to discredit and intimidate critics. He regularly attacks journalists, judges, and political opponents. He puts enormous pressure on national networks and newspapers through the FederalCommunicationsCommission to silence criticism. This is not strength. This is abject weakness driven by fear. These unconstitutional actions are a blatant attempt to silence dissent. In a healthy democracy criticism is not disloyalty—it is necessary. The Founders built a carefully constructed system of checks and balances into the Constitution. A noisy dissent and disagreement with one another is as American as apple pie. However, when a president betrays his oath of office to preserve and protect the Constitution and the entitled freedoms of all Americans, we are all in danger of losing our democratic republic.

One glaring failure of the Trump administration has been the actions of the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE} and the United States Border Patrol (USBP). Their aggressive operations at times have been lawless and dehumanizing. Border security is vitally important because we must have secure borders. However, these militarized tactics by masked, poorly trained officers have created fear, anger, and resistance among a large majority of Americans.

The promise was to get rid of the worst of the worst. Instead undocumented workers who have been living peacefully, raising families, and contributing to the economy are arrested, sent to detention centers, and deported to brutal foreign prisons without due process. American citizens have been arrested, beaten and murdered, for no other reason than exercising their Constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest. This outrageous moment in our history does not look like the America we love.

Unfortunately, President Trump’s unconstitutional policies have been sustained by those who refuse to stand up to him in the Congress. Too many members of the Republican Party in Congress have ceded their Constitutional power to the administration. They have lacked the courage to confront the president when he crosses lines they know are wrong. They swore an oath to defend the Constitution, not to defend a personality. Oversight is their duty. Silence is not neutrality— it is complicity.

There are encouraging signs that cracks are beginning to form in the unquestioning support for Donald Trump. More Republicans are speaking out. Some conservative lawmakers have publicly criticized the president’s conduct and questioned his decisions. Even among some of his most loyal MAGA supporters, doubt and anger are growing— especially over broken promises about affordability, the Epstein files, and the lack of real transparency.

Trump is losing ground everywhere. His power over the institutions of government and the American people is weakening. In time, President Trump and his enablers will be held accountable, and that scares Trump. Hence his increasingly desperate attempts to distract from his failures-invade Greenland, make Canada the fifty-first state, wage war on Venezuela for their oil, and start a war with Iran. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, huge numbers of ordinary Americans are standing up for our country. They are speaking out. Across the land large peaceful protests are taking place. People are gathering in cities and small towns alike, demanding accountability and respect for democratic norms and the Constitution. They are voting in high numbers. They are organizing locally. They are supporting investigative journalism. They are refusing to be silent. There are patriotic and highly capable individuals among both Democrats and Republicans who are emerging and offering hope for the election of leaders who believe in the rule of law – leaders who recognize their duty is to serve the people’s needs and interests, not their own.

“We the people” is the battle cry, as it was 250 years ago, when this great experiment in democracy began. At that momentous beginning Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of country will we have? He responded “A republic if you can keep it.”