Donald John Trump is destroying American democracy. Senator Susan Collins has the seniority to do something but does nothing to stop the tyranny

To the editor of the Yakima Herald Republic newspaper in Washington State— Donald John Trump is a man ignoring the Constitution and the law. Imposing tariffs, making war with nations without the consent of Congress and alienating allies. People who are here legally are being harassed and imprisoned by Trump's ICE police.

• There's an attempt to eliminate habeas corpus (right of due process) because he claims there's an "invasion." 
• Ignoring voting rights because he would have us believe there is unproven voter fraud. 
• Hiring incompetent sycophants and firing experienced government workers and senior military leaders. 
• Gutting the USAID foreign assistance to aid in poverty and  relief from deadly infectious diseases like Ebola.

Trump wants to use taxpayers' 💲money for people who have attacked the Capitol and police and have been convicted of crimes. Over 10,000 of the best attorneys of both parties who observe their oaths have left government positions. The DOJ has become Trump's personal retribution squad. There are 22 people who are competent public servants but "enemies" of the president who he's trying to prosecute.

"Pay to Play" is compromising the government in deal after deal to benefit Trump. Building expensive ballrooms, needless arches and reflecting pools.

It will take decades to deal with the damage done to our country by Trump and his extremists. Psychiatrists and professors of law will use him as an example of incompetent leadership and a time of lawlessness in America. It is imperative to teach the younger generation — THIS IS NOT NORMAL❗

From ANNE ANNA in Yakima, Washington State

Maine Writer P.S. Where is Senator Susan Collins❓

Donald Trump and maga Republicans destroying America and as Americans we are fed up with his evil selfishness

Echo opinion letter published in the Milwaukee Journal, in Wisconsin: By any reasonable assessment, the first six months of Donald Trump’s presidency have been an abject failure❗💢

It bears remembering that Trump took office as a convicted felon, also being found liable for sexual assault. 

Trump pardoned over 1,500 of the January 6 rioters, many of whom assaulted law enforcement officers.

Trump boasted and bragged that he would end Russia's invasion of Ukraine in one day. Six months later the war rages on. Trump's ICE squad is literally kidnapping people off of America's streets, his agents of cruelty wearing masks and no identifying marks on their clothing or vehicles. They are locking people up with no due process.

Trump's unjust tariffs (taxes) are causing price increases at home and economic confusion around the world. The latest economic reports show slowing hiring, rising inflation and a loss of manufacturing jobs.

Trump and the Republicans' budget bill will take health insurance away from approximately 11 million people and SNAP (food assistance) from millions of hungry children. The closing of USAID will take food and medicine away from starving people overseas.

Trump's latest hustle is accepting a "gift," a strict violation of the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, in the form of a Boeing 747-8 airliner worth $400 million from the Qatari government. Trump intends to skim $934 million from the taxpayer funded Pentagon budget to retrofit the plane.

The corruption is staggering.

From James Korthals, Cedarburg, Wisconsin

Donald Trump cult and the Republican MAGA brand is cruelty above all else

Why the cruelty from Trump Administration❓

Why is cruelty the main point with Trump’s Republican MAGA movement❓ 

Echo opinion letter published in the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin newspaper, in Washington state.

Their political ideology and policies seem purposely mean-spirited. They attack DEI, immigrants, our economy, and the most vulnerable and marginalized citizens in America with an unseemly and un-Christian glee.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity. In any normal world these words would have positive connotations, but MAGA and Fox Propaganda hiss DEI through angry clenched teeth because DEI is a code word for black, brown, and LGBTQ+ people. Republican MAGA claims that merit is all that matters, and then appoint the most unqualified people in the history of American governance — puppy killers and alleged wife beaters — because the only merit that matters is loyalty to King Trump (the MAGA cult leader).

Elon Musk pranced around with his metaphorical chainsaw and then the richest man in the world took food and medicine away from the poorest children in the world by demolishing USAID.  The reckless decimation of USAID by Donald Trump and Elon Musk put thousands of employees out of jobs and left aid recipients around the world without access to key food and medical programs.

Now the MAGA House has passed a budget that takes from the poor and gives to the rich while slashing benefits for millions. Americans suffer so that billionaires can have one more yacht or mansion.

MAGA has already taken reproductive health care away from millions of women, and now want to eliminate federal emergency disaster aid. Why?

From Jeff Warner in Walla Walla, Washington state

Donald Trump snubs our European allies: Obviously no understanding about the successful Marshall Plan

Trump and Vance arrogant bullies. President Zelenskyy wronged.

Echo opinion letter published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper (below): 

"As a European, I just do not understand how on earth any of this is allowed to happen. This is truly nuts - just nuts. We, as humans, are better than this", @richardchalkscorriette2197

Dear Editor:  I watched President Donald Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and was disappointed, angered and embarrassed by the arrogant and bullying behavior of both Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

If anyone is deserving of an apology it is Zelenskyy.

I hardly recognize the Republican party any more. It is embarrassing to see the United States siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — distancing us from our long-term allies in Europe.

Following World War II, U.S. Secretary of State, George Marshall*, said, “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health to the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.”

There was no discussion of a quid pro quo or mineral rights. This is a sharp contrast to Trump’s “negotiations” over aid to Ukraine and the assault on USAID programs to combat poverty, hunger and disease in the developing world.

Trump and Vance’s behavior in the meeting with Zelenskyy was embarrassing and disgraceful. We are becoming increasingly isolated from our friends and allies. Hopefully, America can rise from the ashes.

From Charles Uphoff, in Fitchburg Wisconsin

*On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, who in 1947 proposed that the United States provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe. (Maine Writer note:  In fact, the successful Marshall Plan could have rightfully been named "The Truman Plan", but President Truman made the decision to credit the former Secretary of State George Marshall (b.1880-d.1959) for the program.  Unfortunately many history challenged Americans have no idea who George Marshall was, or how this plan saved Europe from starvation and economic disaster.  

Cruel maniacally unbalanced Elon Musk has destroyed American credibility: Musk is nauseating! 🤢

Echo opinion letter published in The New York Times:

Like so many, I awoke on Monday to this post on X from Elon Musk: “We spent the entire weekend feeding USAID into the woodchipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.”

Abominable grammar, but his evil point is clear. He is gleefully destroying the lives of millions of the world’s poorest, and denigrating the service of thousands of highly educated, loyal and dedicated workers. It is nauseating 🤢— if not maniacally unbalanced.

What kind of person gloats as he destroys an organization that has helped save millions of people from AIDS, Ebola and other infectious diseases? That responds to disasters with lifesaving assistance? That trains health care workers and election workers and government leaders? That shares our democratic values? An agency whose symbol of a handshake appeared on millions of bags of food commodities shared in times of famine, earning America gratitude and admiration?

As a U.S.A.I.D. spouse and a retired State Department Foreign Service officer, I witnessed firsthand the gratitude that U.S.A.I.D. recipients felt, in Nicaragua, Guatemala and particularly Uganda, where my husband, Paul D. Cohn, helped develop the first successful AIDS program in Africa, saving thousands of lives. 

One winter, working in Washington, he helped save the people of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from freezing when the Russian-built central heating system ran out of coal. He was just one of many who did what had to be done.

Those dedicated people being discharged in the most belittling manner are employees who work in the most challenging circumstances, often at great risk to themselves. 

In the years that I served, I lost many whom I considered friends: Two were murdered; one was kidnapped by Al Qaeda and held captive for four years before dying in an American airstrike; one died of pneumonia; one was killed in a motorcycle accident; one child was electrocuted; one spouse died of malaria, and others, including my husband, were infected but survived. Others were killed in embassy bombings or plane crashes.

People who demonstrate the best of American values are being discharged by an unrestrained, cruel billionaire, who is a South African immigrant, a country where USAID has provided support, is  calling them criminals, at the behest of the Trumpzi president. Do they think we won’t notice?

From Irene Posner Cohn in San Francisco

P.S. From Maine Writer:  In other words Elon Musk is full of shit❗💩

Donald Trump and Leon Musk are breaking laws left and right and the Republicans know it! Impeach Trump NOW!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/04/opinion/republicans-cowards-trump-musk/
Echo opinion published in The Boston Globe
Republicans are complicit in the constitutional crises that Trump and Musk are unleashing.  In a moment demanding courage, the GOP has only cowards.  By Renée Graham


Standing in solidarity with US Agency for International Development employees who were abruptly banned from entering their headquarters in Washington on Monday, Democratic lawmakers did more than call out Elon Musk and President Trump for trying to disband the long-established agency.

“What Trump and Musk have done is not only wrong, it’s illegal,” Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said during a news conference outside the building that included, among others, Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

Like USAID employees, they were also blocked by security from entering USAID headquarters.

“USAID was established by an act of Congress, and it can only be disbanded by an act of Congress,” Beyer said. “Stopping this will require action by the courts and for Republicans to show up and show courage and stand up for our country.”

Federal judges have done their job in temporarily blocking two Musk/Trump directives — ending constitutionally protected birthright citizenship and Trump’s sprawling freeze on federal loans and grants.

But craven congressional Republicans have largely gone stone silent as Musk and Trump step all over the Constitution and execute a coup right before our eyes.

Don’t let them get away with it❗

Since Trump’s inauguration just a few weeks ago, Republicans have somehow escaped the kind of harsh criticism that’s been heaped on Democrats for their sluggish response to Trump’s shocking overreach.

But Democrats are finally reacting with the urgency this moment demands. (Although too many keep voting, for no discernible reason, to confirm some of Trump’s Cabinet nominees.)

On Monday, Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii announced that he is putting a “blanket hold” on all of Trump’s State Department nominees “until … this brazenly authoritarian action is reversed and USAID is functional again."

A hold can slow down the process for confirming nominees, but a minority party alone can’t stop their confirmation.

As Trump and Musk, who has been mysteriously dubbed a “special government employee" by the White House, continue to unmake America, with the White House and Congress controlled by Republicans, Democratic lawmakers don’t have the power to obstruct a ham sandwich.

That means the fate of this nation rests in the unworthy hands of congressional Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who aren’t doing anything to stop this madness.

During Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate confirmation hearing last week, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was praised for interrogating Kennedy on his anti-vaccine views. But on Tuesday, Cassidy, a doctor, cast the deciding vote to advance Kennedy’s nomination.

Cassidy is up for reelection next year. In November, an unnamed Trump adviser told ABC News, “If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary” and “there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.” It’s not party over country. It’s a political career over everything else.

When Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana was asked about Musk’s undefined and seemingly infinite power, he could have been speaking for all of his fellow Republicans.

“To my friends who are upset, call somebody who cares. You better get used to this,” Kennedy said. “It’s USAID today, it’s going to be the Department of Education tomorrow.”

Congressional approval is required to abolish a federal agency. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

Having spent nearly $300 million to buy an election and a president, Musk is doing whatever he wants with the government that Trump was narrowly elected to run.

By now, it’s obvious that Musk is running our country as an unelected president. He’s not even hiding it. Trump gets to appear on camera, sign stacks of executive orders, tell bombastic lies, and name-check his billionaire pals, like right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Larry Ellison, cofounder of Oracle, hanging out in the Oval Office. But it’s Musk driving the evil clown car.

As far as Trump is concerned, he doesn’t need Congress so long as he has the world’s richest man leading him around by his too-long red tie. Whatever Musk wants, Musk gets, and Republicans refuse to do anything about it.

They know most of Trump’s Cabinet nominees are unqualified or too extremist to have access to real power. They know that Musk is unconstitutionally wielding more power right now than both houses of Congress combined. They know Musk has no business making major changes without a whiff of congressional involvement about policies that will impact hundreds of millions of lives here and worldwide.

But their inaction is being excused in the same way that Trump has long gotten a pass on his hideous behavior. To the detriment of the country, it’s all been normalized as just the way they do things.

As America — and the world — shuddfrom er this ongoing coup, Republicans are guilty of a dereliction of duty. And to save their political necks, they’ve surrendered the Constitution and this fragile nation to the destructive whims of a billionaire Nazi-salute enthusiast and a convicted felon.

Renée Graham is a Globe columnist.