Letters to the Editor | July 23, 2025

It is incomprehensible that Robert L. Siegfried Jr. says Donald Trump is a model leader and “has changed this country for the better.” This multimillionaire lives in his own bubble, isolated from the world of everyday Americans. We are watching the dismantling of institutions and government departments that ensured and protected the well-being of all, especially the most vulnerable. We are witness to the breakdown of decency, constitutionality, and law in the White House and among politicians afraid to speak their conscience.

Siegfried has every right to establish a center at the University of Delaware to promote his values. Wealth can do that. But his claim that “the table is set for successful growth that will benefit our nation and the world” underscores innate and mistaken assumptions from those used to the power of wealth. His declarations reveal distortions of what he calls American “core values.” In fact, his aspirations for the country are not the aspirations of those of us who once trusted in the Constitution, the established rule of law, the rights of being human, and the true responsibilities of Congress. I thank The Inquirer for the interview and for Siegfried’s candor. Now, we are more informed.

Jacqueline Poppalardo, Voorhees

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling granting President Donald Trump the authority to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education will have disastrous consequences regarding equal funding and access to a complete education for all. As a public school student living in the suburbs, I know education is power. I’ve seen the inequality that results from lack of funding. Throughout inner-city Philadelphia, countless schools (predominantly full of Black and brown students) have received far less funding than their suburban counterparts. By removing federal standardization, schools like these throughout the nation could fall further, deepening the cycle of economic inequality. Furthermore, the current battle over what is taught will surely impact curricula. While I’m fortunate enough to live in a progressive district, others are not, and risk becoming uninformed of topics like critical race theory, LGBTQ rights, and sex education, as well as the history, heritage, and strife of various communities. Black history is American history — and so is the history of every other community that makes its home in the U.S. In losing these stories, we lose ourselves.

Hudson Etezady, Gulph Mills

You may be aware of the student petition to remove Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s name from the Cheltenham High School Hall of Fame. For those of you who want Netanyahu to be seen as a model for the school’s current students, you might consider adding some context alongside his picture. At the outset of the war against the people of Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that Israel was “imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” If the genocidal intent of Netanyahu’s government wasn’t clear from that statement, it became more so on Oct. 28, 2023, when Netanyahu referenced the biblical story of Amalek, and the call for the Israelites to completely eliminate their attackers.

Judith Chomsky, Elkins Park

Remember when we couldn’t believe how the German people allowed concentration camps? Certainly, they knew people were disappearing and possibly suffering. Well, here we are. Our camps don’t have gas ovens, but the conditions would kill anyone’s spirit. People are kidnapped from their workplace or off the street by unidentified masked agents. Some are taken to the Florida Everglades prison where they face “sweltering heat, bug infestations and meager meals,” and must sleep under lights that never turn off. Can you imagine three toilets for 32 inmates with no privacy? If you want a drink of water, you have to wait, since the small sink is behind the toilet. Washing is a luxury. Toilets often don’t flush, so stagnant human waste risks disease. Being imprisoned there is a form of torture. And remember, there have been no trials or convictions.

Now that the Venezuelan immigrants shipped off to El Salvador by the Trump administration have been released, we may hear about what happened to them in the months they spent in detention. Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele has imprisoned thousands of his own citizens without trial. Alejandro Muyshondt, Bukele’s former national security adviser, who criticized pro-Bukele officials of corruption and drug trafficking, died in prison. According to a family member interviewed by the Financial Times, Muyshondt’s body showed clear signs of torture. Bukele has been praised by both Donald Trump and JD Vance as a role model. We are complicit in this inhumane treatment unless we close these prisons here and abroad.

Sandra Folzer, Philadelphia

Lawyers must pass the bar exam before applying for their legal license to practice law. They take an oath to protect the Constitution and their state’s constitution. Just how do the bar associations across this country then protect the Constitution? How can the U.S. Supreme Court rule that “presidents have criminal immunity while in office,” even though it violates the letter of the law? The last time I checked, Article II says the president is held accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors by the court of Congress. So are all other government officeholders. For example, justices who overturn Article II. When will bar associations revoke law licenses of those who are destroying our 249-year-old democracy with lies and ruling by judges against the Constitution? Is the oath taken by law practitioners a lie? Prove it’s not.

Hank Schrandt, Newtown

I believe the Founding Fathers assumed the future of the country they bled and died for would uphold the tenets of the democracy they created. When James Madison sequestered himself in the second-floor library of his Montpelier estate in Virginia to write the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, he could not have conceived of a time when a person of low morals and character, a wannabe autocrat, would be able to hijack the government and bend it to his will.

Donald Trump is doing his level best to destroy our government from within. He has placed incompetent sycophants at every high level of the administration, who bend the knee daily and spew lies in a shameful manner. Trump’s immoral attack on immigrants far exceeds his campaign promise to deport criminals and gang members. His U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gestapo is destroying the families of too many hardworking people who have been here for decades. His incompetent firings at various departments contradict the promise to streamline the government. All done at the expense of our safety, security, healthcare, and the environment. His defunding of social programs while giving tax breaks to the richest is another example of his corrupt, selfish, and sinful nature.

Madison’s country has been hoodwinked and conned by the best con man this nation has ever seen. Hopefully, the time will come when we will be free of Trump and his sycophants.

John Di Benedetto, Jenkintown

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