Americans must express anger against Donald Trump's maga evil racist rants and hideous social media messages

Letter to the Editor: Racist Imagery Threatens the Moral Core of Our Democracy published in Door County Pulse,  in Wisconsin, on February 11th, 2026.

Donald Trump posted a racially obscene image on his (fake social❗) social media platform depicting former President Barack Obama and former beautiful First Lady Michelle Obama with their faces placed on the bodies of primates. 

I am appalled and deeply disturbed that such an evil racist image was posted and that when questioned, Trump reportedly indicated he had done nothing wrong.

This is one of the oldest and most dehumanizing racial attacks in our history. When someone entrusted with immense authority amplifies such imagery, it does more than offend – it signals to the world that the erosion of human dignity is permissible.

We must ask ourselves: Who are we, as a people❓ What vision of humanity do we uphold❓ We must call Mr. Trump out. We must vote him and those who support this behavior out of office. Even more importantly, we must reclaim the moral ground on which our civic life depends. Let your friends, colleagues, and neighbors know that you stand for the inherent worth and dignity of every human being, not because it is politically convenient, but because it is ethically necessary. 

Our Declaration of Independence, which states that “all men [people] are created equal,” offers not simply a historical phrase, but rather a philosophical claim about the nature of human existence. It asserts that dignity is not granted by power, wealth, or status – it is intrinsic. It belongs to all of us or it belongs to none of us. To abandon this belief is to abandon the moral architecture of our democracy.

Let your friends and neighbors know ❗ This hideous racist (evil) behavior from Trump, about our beloved nation is simply and totally unacceptable. We must all hold fast to the values that make us human and to the ideals that make this nation worth striving for.

From Trish Black in  Sister Bay, Wisconsin

Donald Trump and maga Republicans need a history refresh about "We Hold these truths- All men - and women- are created equal"

Opinion letter to the editor published in the Maine Pen Bay Pilot/Talk: No President has been so historically illiterate
By Jim Matlack

On July 4, 2025, American just celebrated the 249th Anniversary of the founding document of our nation — the Declaration of Independence. 

I am proud to have a direct family link to the facsimile text of the Declaration, so widely published in days celebrating our nation's independence. That precious text — carefully written out on vellum with a quill pen was the handiwork of Timothy Matlack, who is often called the Scribe of the Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in 1776.

Timothy was a Quaker and sometime small businessman who was called upon to draft various legal documents due to his skill with a quill pen. He joined the militia in a battle against British troops in New Jersey early in the war for which he was thrown out of his Quaker meeting. Through the rest of a long life he was active in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania state politics on behalf of expanding the vote to ordinary (white, male) citizens.

I take pride in the family connection to the Declaration and its "created equal" affirmation however short we have fallen at times from this ideal that lies at the heart of our political heritage. 

Never more so than now under the corrupt and lawless conduct of the Trump Administration.

In countless ways Trump has violated both law and custom under the Constitution in a shameless quest to establish authoritarian rule. The long list of offenses by King George in the Declaration can be matched one for one by modern-day counterpart episodes of misconduct by Trump. The legacy of the founders and their caution about an over-strong executive have been swept away by mindless MAGA support for Trump's excesses.

This whole situation was exemplified in a recent encounter in the Oval Office. On May 2, when Trump was seated at the Resolute Desk while Terry Moran (ABC News) was standing beside, looking about the office. Their exchange was recorded and later broadcast for all to see.

In addition to all the gaudy gold newly installed by Trump — a vulgarian's notion of how to look successful — Moran noted a framed version of the Declaration on the wall. Rumor was that Trump had tried to get the original text written out by Timothy Matlack but was wisely denied by the Archives. 

Instead, a vintage printed version may be involved since the frame has a curtain to draw across in order to reduce fading due to bright light.

Moran said: "I see that you have the Declaration there. What does it mean to you?"

Trump's astonishing reply was: "Well, it means exactly what it says. It's a declaration. It's a declaration of unity, love and respect and it means a lot and it's something very special to our country."

What the Declaration of Indpendence really says is this: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It further establishes that governments are instituted to secure these rights and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Trump reveals his ignorance of the actual content and significance of the document. No President has been so historically illiterate or done more to betray the promise and the ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.

From Jim Matlack, who lives in Camden, Maine

Opinion letter - Trump morally unfit for any office

Letter to Editor: Trump Is Morally Unfit for Any Office publsihed in the Talbots Spy blog Easton Maryland:  

I was reminded by an overnight TV news analysis of the off-year elections that we are two-and-a-half years from July Fourth 2026, the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence. That means we’re approaching a grand Quarter Millennial birthday celebration of the United States of America – either that or a pitched battle for survival of democracy as we know it. So long as Donald Trump remains the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, we’re at risk of that historical catastrophe.

Whether or not you support Trump’s candidacy makes little difference to him as long as you send him cash. He can’t be bothered to show up for debates because the disgraced ex-president has zero tolerance for elections that don’t guarantee his “victory.” They’re either rigged against him or he’ll try to rig them in his favor, or bust – as in getting busted. 

Again. His political ambition, aside from staying out of jail with presidential immunity, is to achieve the status of bullies and thugs he so admires, including war criminals (Putin) and nuke-happy lunatics (Kim).

The United States is by far and away the most powerful nation in world history. Such power is deadly dangerous in the hands of a pathological narcissist who, when he isn’t lying, gets it all wrong due to colossal ignorance about everything except promoting himself while cheating and denigrating anyone who holds him accountable. It makes him a greater national security menace than even our declared foreign enemies. Would you trust him not to sell to the highest bidder top-secret documents he stole from the White House and hid despite myriad federal subpoenas?

Now, under the stress of serial indictments and the civil trial that challenges his reputation as a billionaire and threatens to put his “empire” out of business, he’s gone bonkers. At a rally staged as counter-programing to the latest GOP debate he skipped, he once again displayed his geopolitical dyslexia by placing Hungary on the border of both Russia and Ukraine while complimenting its leader, Viktor Orban, for implicitly supporting Putin’s war. And in the next breath he gushed about the dictatorial rule of Kim Jong Un by observing that “1.4 million North Koreans know who’s boss.” Trump can’t even seem to remember who he ran against in 2016 and who he’ll likely face in ’24, proclaiming that he “beat Obama when no one said I could” and would beat him again.

Yet virtually the entire Republican Party has been turned into a MAGA cult. The vast majority of elected Republicans and party apparatchiks who should know better – even those who do know that he’d ruin the GOP and endanger national security – are too cowardly to stand against him. Looking to the House of Representatives as an example of what MAGA Republicans would do with a majority in both houses of Congress and the out-for-revenge Donald in the Oval Office, it amounts to accessory to insurrection to vote for ANY Republican who fails to denounce Trump as unfit, not only for president, but also for any position of authority in or out of government.

While I’m not saying never mind all the felony and civil charges on his rap sheet, I am saying that worse even than all his self-inflicted legal troubles is his aberrant lack of human empathy. Who routinely speaks ill of the dead? Who calls military heroes who died defending their country “suckers and losers”? Who would say that to the father of such a hero at the foot of the soldier’s grave at Arlington? Why didn’t John F. Kelly, a retired general and Trump’s first White House chief of staff, sock him in the jaw? Because he knew that without some presence of a decent person not afraid to tell him, “no, you can’t do this,” Trump would wind up inciting a violent mob somewhere along the line. It’s a miracle someone hasn’t yet been assassinated at his incendiary bidding. Any number of decent people in various capacities at the White House, in his Cabinet or chairing the Joint Chiefs of Staff hung on, at least in part, for that reason.

It started with Senator John McCain, especially after he cast the vote that defeated Trump’s determination to nullify Barack Obama by overturning the signature triumph of his predecessor as president – the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Trump called McCain a “loser” because he got shot out of the sky over Vietnam and courageously remained in the “Hanoi Hilton,” tortured for five years while refusing to be released until his fellow American POWs were released with him. Even though he was commander-in-chief, Trump was not invited to McCain’s funeral. But he is never remorseful. In 2018, at the centennial of the end of World War I, Trump refused to visit the American cemetery near Paris because it, too, was “filled with losers.” And in his post-presidency, he berated Mark Milley on the occasion of the Army general’s retirement as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump called Milley a “moron” and “traitor” – seems that he’s projecting again – who should be “executed” for calling allies and potential adversaries, principally China, to reassure them after the January 6 insurrection that there would be no surprise military attacks on his watch.

There are also many egregious policy decisions by President Trump that the United States is still trying to recover from: canceling negotiations to thwart Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear military power, withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement to address the existential threat of climate change, and cheating with Mitch McConnell’s help to pack the Supreme Court with the intention to overturn Roe v. Wade. Be careful what you wish for, Donald. Go ahead and run on bragging about that! It appears to be a guaranteed loser.

But it is Trump’s open contempt for the military that should automatically disqualify him for the presidency. He’s repeatedly said out loud that injured and maimed veterans should be kept out of  sight. The presence of amputees “doesn’t look good for me,” thinking only of himself as he also did in expressing contempt for Gold Star families during 2016 campaign rallies. To vote for Trump to be our commander-in-chief, again, is to surrender to the cult leader of the enemy within and the greatest threat to our freedom as a democracy.

As John Kelly put it in a CNN interview: “There is nothing else that can be said. God help us.”

Steve Parks
Easton

Founding Fathers "all men are created equal"- leaders too

An echo opinion letter published in The Morning Call, in Allentown Pennsylvania 

Donald Trump and his illegal behavior does not put him above the law, just because he and his #fakeBarr attorney general says so.

What would George Washington do?

The Morning Call letter- In the Declaration of Independence, it states “… that all men are created equal." Can anyone picture the Founding Fathers agreeing with the prerogative that a president cannot be indicted while in office? This thought, I believe, would have been inconceivable to them as men of honor dedicated to the country.

What would their words of wisdom be if they were to see the current state of affairs? To mind comes George Washington’s “guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism," and, may I add “even those in high places.”

Xavier Faura from Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania