Editor, The Smithfield Times:

Please allow me the indulgence of a rebuttal to the letter from an individual in last week’s Times (“MAGA critics are the problem), in which the virtues of Mr. Trump were extolled.

MAGA critics are not the problem. MAGA enablers are. Our “president,” and I use that term very loosely, is completely incapable of running any business, much less our country.

So let’s talk about some reasons why Trump does not deserve to be elected again. Paris Climate Accord? Who needs it? Iran nuclear deal? Who needs it? Foreign allies? Who needs them? Any military person worth his salt, especially a higher ranking officer, should understand the importance of foreign allies.

If he was alive, I wonder if Trump would have invited Muammar Ghadafi to the White House. If we could find him, Bashaar Al Assad, come on over.

President Obama’s portrait was recently made, ready to be installed in the White House. Trump refused to have a ceremony and had it put away, putting two Republican portraits in its place, breaking a tradition going back decades — all because of a personal vendetta with him and Democrats.

Mr. Trump’s vain acknowledgement of the recent death of Congressman John Lewis was pathetic. I disagreed with him on some things policywise, but I give credit to President Bush for showing up at his funeral, a representation of what all people should strive to be like — not just giving lip service because it’s what you’re obligated to do.

MAGA supporters said give Trump a chance. We have. It has been a three-year disaster, mostly of his own making, with years of progress in foreign relations gone, attempting reversal of climate change in danger. Vitriol at the level of which I can never recall seeing. The coronavirus is out of control and his response bungled.

It is my fervent hope that Mr. Biden can come in and at least chip away at some of the damage. It is my fervent hope, but probably not likely, that Republicans and Democrats can come together on something. We are not paying them to argue and one-up each other, showing no progress in what we send them to Washington to do.

I am not completely against Mr. Trump. He has some good ideas. His behavior, however, is completely unacceptable and more than likely not what our founding fathers would have wanted.

 

Reid S. Lundie

Carrollton