Archived Opinion

Get rid of Trump?

To the Editor:

A recent letter writer said that the Democrats will do almost anything to get rid of Trump. He is probably right, but for the wrong reasons.

The President recently said he would give Saudi Arabia and its leader the benefit of the doubt about the brutal murder and dismemberment of a journalist and resident of the United States.  Our CIA has said with high certainty that they did it, but that was not good enough for President Trump. He said it would cost too much.

He is worried that they might cut off our oil. The U.S. is now self-sufficient in oil. He is concerned that we will lose huge arms sales to the Saudis, but the actual sales are a small fraction of what he claims. He said we need good allies like the Saudis, but their war in Yemen has caused the death of over 80,000 children from starvation. Even his Republican allies in Congress are crying foul on the Saudi mess as a betrayal of American values and moral leadership.

On the home front, President Trump said, Californians should just rake the leaves off the forest floor, like they do in Finland, then there would be no more wild fires. Ninety percent of the forest land in California is under federal governmental control, so he needs Congress to appropriate money for an army of rakers. That should work.

Don McGahn, the recently fired White House attorney, has admitted that President Trump wanted him to instruct the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute James Comey and Hillary Clinton. Since the days of J. Edgar Hoover  and Watergate there has been an impenetrable wall between any administration and law enforcement. But Trump, who is no student of history, believes that the Justice Department is just a tool to go after anyone who disagrees with him.

There are many countries where this is true — China, Russia, North Korea, Turkey, to name just a few. But as Don McGahn told the president, in this democracy, that is an impeachable offence.

This and much more has happened just in the last two weeks. So it is true that Democrats, as part of  a solid majority of voters in this country, will work very hard to end this stain on our presidency.

Louise Vitale

Franklin

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