Donald Trump and maga Republicans must fire incompetent people on the Trumpzi cabinet and then impeach Donald Trump.

Echo opinion published in the Baltimore Sun newspaper:

If one way to judge the quality of a leader is to look at the caliber of the people who are appointed to important positions, then Donald Trump’s presidency has failed monumentally. 

Kristi Noem, queen of lavishly expensive self-promoting photo ops and leader of a department responsible for fatal overreactions only to call the victims of those overreactions “domestic terrorists,” is now out. Unfortunately, several other key Trump appointees are still there (“Trump fires Homeland Security Secretary Noem after mounting criticism over her leadership,” March 5).

We still have pro-measles, anti-science Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filling his department with extreme anti-vaccine people, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who allowed a reporter to listen in on secret war plans, can barely contain his bloodlust and can’t stop from cheap political attacks as he describes the war with Iran.

There is also Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who claimed he cut off all contact with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2005, only to have later admitted he visited Epstein’s island in 2012 and had been found to be in a business arrangement with Epstein until 2018.

And there is also Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose shameful weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice (with its dismissed indictments of James Comey and Letitia James) is mitigated only because of its incompetence.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio may have committed the worst sin of all, at least in the eyes of Donald Trump. He apparently lapsed into the truth when he said that the U.S. attacked Iran last Saturday because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action” that would “precipitate an attack against American forces.”

After hearing Trump say that no, the Israelis probably attacked because we were going to attack, Rubio explained quite clearly the next day that he didn’t say what he had said. Ah.

😕❓

Apparently, being a sycophant is really not what makes for a good servant of the people.

From Steven P. Grossman, in Pikesville, Maryland

#ImpeachDonaldTrumpNOW

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must stop illegal invasions and making threats against sovereign countries!

Echo opinion published in the Baltimore Sun:

Understandably, Americans are more concerned with their job security and the challenging ability to meet weekly expenses than they are about international issues. (Maine Writer opinion, although Trump will use our tax money like his own personal checkbook because the Supreme Court said he can do and get away with anything❗)

But, what Donald Trump is doing on the international stage is so crazy and so dangerous that it demands our attention (“Trump meets with oil executives at the White House on Friday, seeking investments in Venezuela,” Jan. 9).

Trump argues that the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela was merely the arrest of an indicted criminal. Whether that authorizes him to bomb a foreign country and forcibly change that country’s leadership without authorization from Congress is highly questionable. In defending Trump’s action, Sen. Lindsey Graham compares the arrest of Maduro to the arrest of the leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega, in 1990. But, we did not thereafter intend to “run” Panama like Trump stated we intend to run Venezuela. That Maduro is a cruel dictator is clear; that Trump intends more than just his arrest (such as taking Venezuelan oil) is equally clear. That explains why the Senate, with the votes of five Republicans, just moved forward a bill to restrict the president from taking further military action against Venezuela.

Moreover, what this administration is saying about Greenland is even crazier. The White House made clear it does not reject the possibility of using military force to take over an autonomous territory belonging to our NATO ally Denmark. I don’t think even Trump would suggest that the prime minister of Denmark is a narco terrorist, a term he has used for Maduro. Take a step back for a moment and reflect on the fact that the president of the United States is not ruling out the use of force against a NATO ally for no apparent reason other than a claim that it would help American security to possess Greenland.

Aside from how just plain wrong this is, consider how China could use Trump’s rationale for the use of force and continued occupation of Venezuela and Greenland with regard to actions it might take against Taiwan or anywhere else where its national security could be enhanced by taking over parts of another country. Surely, we lose the moral authority to scold Russia for its brutal attack on Ukraine.

At this point, I don’t care about the hypocrisy and inconsistency Trump demonstrates daily (you’ll remember during his campaign how he warned against foreign interventions), but at some point, enough has to be enough.

From Steven P. Grossman, in Baltimore, Maryland