Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.
Trump’s actions are
not accomplishments
Re: “Love him or hate him, Trump keeps winning” (Page A7, July 18).
So sorry, Marc Thiessen, but I do not agree with your article that highlights the “actions” of Donald Trump. Actions are not accomplishments. Oh yes, he has performed many actions, but what has he accomplished for the quality of life of the American citizen?
Related Articles
Letters: Power lines drive state’s energy cost, not clean energy
Letters: Ranked choice leaves votes on the table
Letters: San Jose still isn’t engaging on animal welfare at shelter
Letters: Politicians’ op-ed dodges state’s role in insurance mess
Letters: The wealthy have a hole in their lives that can’t be filled
• Improved learning opportunities for children. He dismantled the Education Department.
• Health care for Americans. He cut Medicaid.
• Equal justice under the law. He fired our prosecutors.
• Protect the climate. He restored coal as a prime energy source.
• Communicate with citizens. He cut PBS and NPR funding.
• Golden age for economy. U.S. consumers are paying tariff taxes.
Actions speak louder than words, and accomplishments really do affect the lives of the citizens of America. Our president may say he has taken many actions, but has he accomplished his promises?
Robert Celeste
Fremont
Key omissions make
column’s list specious
Re: “Love him or hate him, Trump keeps winning” (Page A7, July 18).
I find Marc Thiessen’s article about Donald Trump’s accomplishments somewhat factual, but lying by omission is always inappropriate. You may like or dislike his list, but he should at least be honest in his approach.
Conveniently left off:
• Increasing the deficit by $2.4 trillion, despite promoting fiscal responsibility.
• Shredding the constitutional rights of people being deported without due process.
• Continuing tax breaks for the richest Americans at the expense of the poorest.
• Pushing nearly 12 million Americans off health care.
• Damaging Medicare with the Big Beautiful Bill, as its deficit spending invokes automatic cuts to Medicare payments.
• Claiming $113 billion in tariffs as an accomplishment. Tariffs are a tax paid by American consumers.
• We are only six months into the Trump presidency, and inflation has started to rise. All reputable economists are saying that if Trump’s tariffs are imposed, inflation will rise substantially.
Hold on to your wallet.
Chris Wood
Pleasanton
Column is an example
of political myopia
Re: “Love him or hate him, Trump keeps winning” (Page A7, July 18).
Marc Thiessen’s column of unrelenting praise for Donald Trump’s rapid successes is from acute political myopia. For many of the cited wins, there is usually a level of uncertainty about the eventual outcome, particularly in foreign policy, where egocentric deal-making replaces diplomacy.
Many recoil in anger and fear after executive orders roll back footholds in climate, environmental and medical sciences, and cut necessary institutions. Especially today, Trump’s deportation policy results in lost talent and community leadership by children of immigrants. Research has shown they are the most upwardly mobile groups in the country and are likely to enter high-skill professions as well as civic participation and community service. Deporting their families is a terror-ridden, self-inflicted economic and social wound.
Thiessen toots that Trump promised we would win so much we’d get tired of winning. If losing our democracy and a livable planet are wins, I’m utterly exhausted by this sort of winning.
Jack Champlin
Lafayette
Rodeo’s treatment of
animals condemns us
“Rodeo provides wild ride for participants” (Page B1, July 15).
The pictures depict the torture of baby and adult animals in the inhumane sport of calf roping and bull dogging. What do such photos say about Americans’ ideas of fun and games, which condone cruelty to animals?
This sport is alive and well today because we as a people either do not value all life, or we are immune to the ultimate dangers to ourselves by ignoring or tolerating such indefensible torture.
M. Hogan
Fremont
Court stacked against
persistent liberal minority
Re: “Justices set table for imperial president” (Page A6, July 17).
Michael Steinberg’s Letter to the Editor resonated with me.
The conservative Supreme Court justices have lost their credibility and job description. This position wasn’t created to bestow power on a president.
Their most recent ruling gives Donald Trump a green light to deport migrants to dangerous areas of the world without due process. Either these justices bought the Kool-Aid speech from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying that those deported “can come back,” or they simply want to appease this president and his ghastly treatment of “the other.”
The three liberal voices, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, should lock arms and walk away from the so-called “supreme” court — although this would be counter-productive. Nevertheless, I’m sure this isn’t what they signed up for.
I pray that these honorable women continue to dissent and act on their high moral standards.
Sharon Brown
Walnut Creek