To the Editor:

Some Republicans voted for Trump because he promised “no foreign wars.” After being elected, he launched an illegal, unprovoked war against Iran with the promise the US would “win” in days, then in weeks — now, when?  By August 2026, we taxpayers had lost $87 billion in extra costs for gas and diesel. That’s over $660 per household in higher fuel costs. But they are just part of the Trump-induced attack on us, the 98% of Americans.

Our total bill as taxpayers and consumers of fossil fuels, food, prescription medicines, and other necessities is even higher now, with no end in sight. And those tariffs Trump put on essentials from our now-former allies add to our bills.

Billionaire-pushed data centers destroy air quality and soil and drain our water supplies. Here in the Smokies, their pollution and the ugliness from some Republican-backed logging in national forests would decimate the billions of dollars that tourism brings.

Other Republicans voted for Trump under the mistaken notion they were voting against gender-affirming surgery. Military trans surgeries were a small part of the DoD budget.  As for “grooming,” in schools, the only grooming going on among the Haywood County teachers I know is their own hair-combing in the teachers’ restroom.  See for yourselves: go to a school, voters, and ask to observe a class. Talk to teachers.

Here is the worst gender-related grooming of all: many hundreds of American girls and young women are traumatized for life, and some driven to suicide, by Epstein and other billionaires — including Trump — whose name is all over the Epstein files. Trump is in public records and photos for nearly 40 years as Epstein’s close friend. Why is he violating the bipartisan Epstein Transparency Act by stopping those records’ release? Only the guilty hide the truth.

That and other human costs of Republican officials’ actions, most illegal by U.S. law and some by international war crimes laws, is incalculable; U.S. Navy personnel marooned on a ship for months without leave and adequate supplies or services; U.S. Capitol Police maimed or murdered by the MAGAs, who pled guilty or were convicted by juries; Trump pardoned them. Thousands of babies and other innocent civilians dead from American-made bombs in the Middle East thousands maimed or dead from Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, which Trump now supports.

Republican voters, if you want to stop immorality and “communism” and keep America a free nation, then vote against the Republicans who support the world’s top communist: Putin’s puppet, Trump. If you want to lower your bills, do not vote for anyone who takes corporate, billionaire PAC money. Check out any candidate on non-partisan, facts-only Ballotpedia.org.

Mary Jane Curry

Waynesville