I submitted the following sixteen letters to the editor of The New York Times between January 3 and February 21. They represent my reaction to Donald Trump’s barrage of actions that have congealed into an unholy trinity of inhumanity, illegality and unconstitutionality during that period.
In the past, I’ve been pretty fortunate in having a fair number of my letters published in The Times. But since January, the competition for publication has been pretty stiff given how many people have wanted to put voice to their feelings of outrage and to share it with others via a letter to the editor. Then, on February 25, my dry-spell with The Times came to an end, and my letter was published. (I was published in The Washington Post of January 17.) For copyright reasons, I can’t reprint my entire February 25 letter, but the last sentence had a good amount of what I call “substance with a beat”—“Clearly, by breaking through the guardrails of laws and norms that have sustained our democratic republic, even during the times of its greatest stress, Trump has demonstrated that his presidency is unsafe at any speed.”
Given the subject matter, I’m not quite sure that it’s appropriate to introduce the following sixteen letters with the phrase “…for your reading pleasure.” But for those who are outraged by the destructive antics of Trump and his allies, these letters at least add my echo to your own thoughts and feelings, with more than a dash of my spicy Neapolitan-based rhetoric and attitude thrown in.
The New York Times, January 3
In his remarks to the House of Representatives upon his election as Speaker, Congressman Mike Johnson cited the words “America First” five times in describing his vision of the governing principle and goals for the 119th Congress. Ironically, he also closed his statement with a recitation of President Thomas Jefferson’s Prayer for the Nation, which includes a call for “pure manners” and a plea to be saved from pride and arrogance.
It will indeed be a challenge for members of Congress of good will or otherwise to harmonize the spirit of America First with these values embodied in Jefferson’s prayer. In that effort, it would be useful for them to also remember the Parable of the Good Samaritan. There, the heroes were not those who were so self-absorbed that they passed by the person on the roadside who had been beaten by robbers. The person to be emulated is the Samaritan, who didn’t ask “what’s in it for me,” but, instead, took time away from his own journey to care for the other who was in need of selfless mercy and loving care.
The New York Times, January 16
Citing what he sees as geopolitical and economic imperatives, President-elect Donald Trump has made clear to his envoy-designee to Denmark Ken Howery that Greenland must be USA bound. At the same time, out of respect for its own national dignity and sovereignty, Denmark has made clear with polite firmness that the island is not for sale.
How long, then, will it take for Trump’s patience to wear thin and for his instructions to Howery to be distilled down to, “Make them an offer they can’t refuse?” But, then, we’d be well-advised, out of our own sense of national dignity and our own enlightened self-interest in support of the sovereignty of other nations, to remember the words of Shakespeare, who himself knew something of Danes, “O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.”
The New York Times, January 20
In the view of tens of millions of Americans, Inauguration Day was a very good day for God, whose name was frequently invoked by members of the clergy, the Congress and President Donald Trump himself. And instead of being used in vain, it was employed in service of self-justification and self-affirmation.
But absent from these incantations were the God of the Good Samaritan, who Scripture does not record as asking, “What’s in it for me?” Similarly, the God who pronounced “As long as you did it for one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it for me” was also noticeably unreferred to. Moreover, the God of the Ten Commandments who prohibited coveting thy neighbor’s goods would certainly take issue with telling Panama, “What’s your is now going to be ours.” Former President Biden often cast the challenge facing our country as a battle for the soul of the nation. Over the next four years, we’ll find out whether that soul’s comfort zone is with a hand of God that dispenses merciful grace or one that asserts a commanding, if not demanding, presence for all to see, regardless of whether they want to or not.
The New York Times, January 22
It’s been only a couple of days since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, but we may soon witness the rise of “election denialism 2.0.” When faced with his pardoning of people convicted of attacking Capitol Hill police officers on January 6, 2021, or his threat to take over the Panama Canal by force, or the predominance within his administration of the corporate elites, some of the people who cast their votes for him this past November may already be on the brink of denying that they voted for THAT.
But should they really now be surprised by what Trump has already done or is threatening to do? After all, he has been found liable of sexual abuse by a jury, had his lawyers argue before the Supreme Court that he is immune from criminal prosecution for actions he took while President and proudly boasted years ago that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose political support.
So this new version of election denialism is surely frustrating for those Americans who believe that Trump’s past word and actions were clear predictors of what he has said and done since being sworn in for a second term. But, ironically, unlike the original electoral denialism that threatened the core premise of our constitutional system, within this new version, if acted upon, may be the seeds of what could save our democratic republic two years hence.
The New York Times, January 27
Many remember the presidency of George W. Bush as a gnarled mixture of foreign misadventures and domestic insensitivity, incompetence and misdirection. But even among this group are those who look at the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which is the global health program Bush started, as, while not perfect, still a shining example of American leadership and effectiveness. It has been credited with saving more than 25 million lives word wide. In a very real sense, it’s the next generation of what his father, President George H.W. Bush, proclaimed as “1,000 points of light” in which volunteerism was promoted as a positive force for improving lives and reinvigorating communities here at home.
But now, with the Trump administration’s move to stop PEPFAR’s funding to clinics, hospitals and other organizations in low income countries, that legacy of American beneficence is at risk as the lives of many of the most vulnerable members of the world community are threatened with being snuffed out. “America First” is a slogan that warms the hearts of tens of millions of Americans as it, at the same time, reflects the narcissism of Trump himself. Yet, as much as Trump cozies up to his evangelical base and it reciprocates in kind, this new posture’s impeding of the good work of PEPFAR has the US standing not with the Good Samaritan, but, instead, with the self-absorbed passersby who ignored the battered victim in need.
The New York Times, January 29
To date, many of President Trump’s executive orders and other diktat’s are cruel, unusual or unconstitutional.
But his notice to two million federal employees that they have until February 6th to resign is nothing less than a display of malevolent ignorance. For these workers, it’s a contemptuous message that their service to our country is so valueless that it can be easily discarded. Yet even worse, it will almost certainly end up killing people. Inspections will become slipshod or non-existent, resulting in food safety laws that are no longer fully or effectively enforced. Life saving medical research will likely be interrupted if not ended entirely at crucial stages. Patients could lose timely access to treatments or prescriptions upon which they rely.
The only chance for these awful consequences to be averted is if a critical mass of Americans immediately engage in the 2025 version of election denialism and shout out to their congressional representatives, “I didn’t vote for THAT!!!”
The New York Times, February 1
Kicking the wisdom of the Founding Fathers to the side, today’s congressional Republicans, by their all but unanimous acquiescing to President Trump’s broad, bold and/or blatantly illegal assertions of executive power, are on the verge of implementing a very quick and dirty way to amend the Constitution. Instead of requiring a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate and a subsequent ratification by three-fourths of the States as Article V of the Constitution prescribes, they, with a quiver and a nod, are in the process of ceding to President Trump their power as a co-equal branch of government, thereby positioning themselves as his most junior of partners.
When confronted with actions such as his firing the inspector generals of various departments and agencies without giving Congress the thirty day notice required by law, congressional Republicans responded by saying Trump’s actions were a mere technical violation of law or were much ado about nothing. A similar non-reaction if not supportive applause to his retribution fueled hollowing out of the Justice Department and the FBI would be another step by congressional Republicans toward self-cutting their institution while at the same time mutilating the Constitution. In effect, they would be editing the Constitution by deleting from Article I, which outlines the powers of the Congress, the “necessary and proper” clause and now affixing that section to Article II, which sets out the powers of the President. By doing so, they will clear the way for Trump to continue to take any actions he deems necessary and proper to implement the supposed mandate he received from fewer than 50% of the voters in the recent election.
Trump, now sniffing out the congressional Republicans’ ready subservience to his whims, will expeditiously move to gobble up even larger pieces of their domain. It’s been barely a month since they swore an oath to support the Constitution. But by this shortcutting of the amendment process, congressional Republicans have signaled their willingness to be party to short circuiting our constitutional order in a way that will enable Trump to act with no checks and even less balance.
The New York Times, February 5
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel are on the threshold of confirmation despite being experientially uncredentialed and temperamentally unfit for the positions to which they have been nominated. Senate Republicans, like their House Republican colleagues, thus, appear ready to complete the transition from their already diminished capacity as President Trump’s very junior partner into virtual lap dogs sitting on their haunches with their front paws raised and bent forward eagerly awaiting their master’s next commands.
The question is how long will it take for Trump’s current victory bouquets to transform themselves into political and substantive time bombs as these nominees fulfill their opponents’ worst expectations. The tragic epilogue to these consequences will be the maiming of our governmental institutions and the norms that undergird them and the putting at risk of the actual physical health and safety of our countrymen and women in the process.
The New York Times, February 7
On the same day that President Donald Trump’s faux religiosity was on full display at the National Prayer Breakfast, his administration was completing the virtual obliteration of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Halted in mid-stream, then, are the clinical trials funded by USAID that offer people in the most desperate of circumstances the hope for life saving treatments.
Trump’s words may well be successful in currying favor with those who feel that they have been the victims of a governmentally inspired anti-Christian bias. But for those who take seriously Jesus’ words that care for the sick is itself a service to God, Trump’s actions with respect to USAID and those who rely on it demonstrate his failure to grasp the very premise of Christianity that the greatest reverence to God is realized by meeting the needs of the least among us. After all, the hero of the parable of the Good Samaritan is not found among those who were so self-absorbed that they passed by the person on the roadside who had been beaten by robbers. It is, instead, the one who acted out of selfless and caring love and didn’t ask, “What’s in it for me.”
The New York Times, February 8
If only one question were asked of the pundits and other commentators on their Trump/Musk apologist tour it should be this: “Will people die as a result of the cuts that are being made in budgets that fund programs which care for the sick, feed the hungry or protect and enhance public safety?”
The least awful answer to this question is “I don’t know.” But even in the face of this ignorance, if these apologists cared enough to try to offer up a justification for this continued budgetary scorched earth policy where the possibility of sickness and death has become the de facto default setting, it would have to be along the lines of, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And with that question, they will have aligned themselves unwittingly, yet so tellingly, with the hardheartedness of the Bible’s first murderer.
The New York Times, February 10
Prior to being sworn in as president, Donald Trump promised not to be a dictator “except on Day One.” But almost immediately upon his inauguration, his rapid-fire actions, ranging from attempting to end birthright citizenship by executive order to depleting and defunding agencies in violation of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and other laws, certainly have the aroma of dictatorship. That’s why it’s in no way hyperbole to say that our country is facing a constitutional crisis that is at least in mid-brew.
Already, Trump, in contravention of the Constitution’s explicit procedures on how it can be amended has, in effect, done just that by transferring, de facto, the “necessary and proper” clause from Article I, which outlines the powers of the Congress, to Article II, which sets forth the powers of the President. Vice President JD Vance has raised the temperature even further by now suggesting that presidential power should include the ability to ignore the orders of federal courts. It’s thus becoming increasingly clear that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was just a sloppy dress rehearsal by Trump and his allies for overturning our constitutional order. If Trump’s actions proliferate and go unchecked in the coming days, weeks and even years, then his one day dictatorship will itself turn into our nation’s longest day.
The New York Times, February 12
Donald Trump has been President for less than a month, but it’s already clear that, writ both large and small, it’s the dawning of the age of legal anarchy.
Trump’s initial mass dismissal of department and agency inspectors general has now been followed up by the firing of USAID’s inspector general almost immediately upon his issuance of a scathing report on the consequences of Trump/Musk’s dismantling of that agency. This firing came within the very short wake of the Trump administration’s decision to halt investigations into consumer fraud and the bribing of foreign officials and businesses. These actions are on top of Trump’s blatantly unconstitutional order ending birthright citizenship, the administration’s violating of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and Vice President Vance’s suggestion that presidential adherence to court orders is now a matter of discretion.
Clearly and frighteningly, our nation under the rapacious direction of Trump is transitioning from the rule of law into the whim of one man. Every day of the Trump administration sees our mantel of moral leadership abroad quiver as the pillars of our civil society here at home shake towards the falling point. At this rate, the one-time promise of America fashioned by our nation’s founders and sustained by the selfless dedication of subsequent generations will be just dust in the wind.
The New York Times, February 14
In 1965, Parker Brothers introduced the game Bobby-Trap. In it, the goal was to remove from the board as many pieces, large and small, as possible without having the “tension bar” move beyond a certain point.
Now, on that game’s sixtieth anniversary, the Trump/Musk administration has unleashed the same dynamic as it dismantles and displaces, piece by piece, federal departments, programs and personnel. In this real time anything-but-a-game, what’s beyond the de facto tension bar are programs that feed the hungry, medical assistance and research to prevent illnesses, and a myriad of agencies that hold in check public safety, safeguard public integrity and foster public decency.
Trump and Musk act as if the wholesale removal of these pieces will be without adverse consequences. But despite our best efforts to forestall and retard these actions, it’s only a matter of time before the federal administrative structure and its partners in the private sector, at home and abroad, are so hollowed out and the services they deliver are so disrupted that the dysfunction and worse will be palpable. At that point, it will be clear that Trump and Musk have booby-trapped themselves along with their Republican junior partners in Congress. Then, it will be up to the rest of us of good will to pick up the pieces and to make America good again.
The New York Times, February 15
During the 2024 campaign, Democrats and some former Trump staffers were criticized for characterizing Trump as a fascist and for even using his name and Adolf Hitler’s in the same sentence.
But within the past weeks it has become clear that Trump sees the Republican Congress as a mere appendage of his own power and not as a coequal branch. Moreover, he has by diktat violated the Constitution with respect to birthright citizenship and treats the Impoundment Act of 1974 and enacted appropriations bills as mere scraps of paper. Then, Vice President JD Vance shocked the German governing parties by calling for the end of the “firewall” that has kept the right-wing extremist AfD party from power sharing.
With these steps sounding in the background, President Trump posted on social media the quote, “He who saves his Country does not violate any law.” While that statement does not track word for word the 1933 Enabling Act by which the German Reichstag surrendered its law making powers to Hitler, the spirit of what Trump favorably cited opens the door for unlimited and unaccountable actions by him that all too closely echo the Enabling Act’s formal name of the “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich.”
So, while it’s true that Trumpism is not a direct descendent of the German authoritarianism of the 1930’s, it’s showing too many signs of being a frightening cousin of it just one step removed.
The New York Times, February 19
“You could have made a deal.” Certainly these must chilling words for the Ukrainians to hear from President Donald Trump after having endured three years of the war initiated by the Russian invasion of their country.
So they could take only some very cold comfort in learning that that Trump implied a sort of moral equivalence between the North and South in America’s Civil War when he said in early 2024, “I think you could have negotiated that.” Even in the face of the fundamental immorality of slavery, perhaps in Trump’s mind the Federal government should have made a deal with the soon-to-be-Confederacy that would have split the difference between slaves’ being counted as three-fifths of a person and a whole person. After all, how much different is that from the State’s rights compromise on women’s bodily autonomy that Trump boasts about when referring to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court majority that he had engineered with the aid of the Republican Senate?
But now for the Ukrainians it is their national autonomy that Trump appears so willing to dismiss in favor of his seeming aspiration to play, along with Vladimir Putin, in a perverse new buddies move, “The Brutalist Badmen in the World.”
The New York Times, February 21
Trying to divine President Trump’s comprehension of geopolitics is a challenge due to his infantile aspirations, his pubescent inclinations and his enfeebled moral machinations.
But given all of that, it’s ironically possible to see how it comes disgustingly natural for him to blame Ukraine for stating the current war. In terms that he all too well understands, there would have been no rape of Ukraine if only it had not offered any resistance and had just let Vladimir Putin’s Russia have its way with her. To Trump and his soul mate Putin, Ukraine was the attacker because it had the audacity to believe that “no” meant “no” and has done its best to fight off the assault on its national autonomy.