Letters to the Editor | Jan. 15, 2026

President Donald Trump issued a warning to Iranian officials that there better not be any shooting of protesters. I’m waiting for him to issue the same warning to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the good ol’ USA. Or we could deport all the ICE officials to countries where you leave your conscience at home in order to earn your paycheck. I’ll help them pack.

Carol Rhodes, Barnsboro

I call on all people of good conscience to unite. Let’s stop allowing the mass media to put us into different camps. Let our goodness unite us across party lines. Please consider this seriously. I see a direct line from the president of the United States pointing a finger at a female reporter exercising her First Amendment rights and saying, “Quiet piggy” to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pointing his gun and firing three shots to the head of an unarmed mother exercising her First Amendment rights. This is not the American way. All good people must unite to save America’s core principles. Liberals, conservatives, libertarians, independents all share a basic human sense of right and wrong. We must unite on those principles and stop allowing the media to pit us against each other. Start now: Declare the killing of Renee Good unacceptable, not just unfortunate.

Patrick Shanahan, Philadelphia

The president is a master of contradictions. While claiming to make cities safer by removing criminal immigrants, he is fomenting discord and violence. He promised lower prices and economic security, and instead, many businesses are forced to raise prices due to tariffs. While the stock market has rallied, the roller-coaster ride of wild ups and downs has undermined economic security and slowed hiring by wary corporations. He pledged to avoid foreign entanglements, yet unashamedly engages in saber-rattling over Venezuela and Greenland. While claiming to be fighting a drug war by blowing up alleged drug boats, he pardons convicted drug lords like Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras and Ross Ulbricht of the online Silk Road drug marketplace. He accuses Joe Biden of having done nothing, yet fentanyl deaths dropped almost 30% in Biden’s final year in office due to addiction programs. Insisting he is fighting radical left decadence by imposing “objective” Christian values, he spews hateful, racist remarks, claiming his “morality” dictates his actions. Promising to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, he pushes plans to build Versailles in place of the East Wing. And Truth Social? Anything but.

John Groch, West Chester

In answering a reporter’s question about how long the U.S. will be in Venezuela (Months? A year? Longer?), President Donald Trump said, “I would say much longer.” The implication is that U.S. resources, financial and otherwise, will go to Venezuela. It would be naive to think that some of those dollars won’t find their way into the wrong pockets, never achieve the intended purpose, or duplicate other efforts. These hints of waste, fraud, or abuse will not likely cause the administration to pause any of this work the way it did when it terminated programs funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development while it looked for waste, fraud, and abuse. None was ever reported, but children were deprived of food, medicine, and education, and communities saw life-sustaining projects ended, leading to starvation, suffering, and death. In Venezuela, it’s the illusion of an imperial U.S. that must be preserved, not the lives of human beings.

Carol Olivieri, Pennington

I turned on my TV yesterday in the middle of a news broadcast, and the announcer was saying that “the supreme leader vows to continue the crackdown on protesters.” I honestly wasn’t sure if they were talking about America or Iran.

Stefan Keller, Huntingdon Valley

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