Letters to the Editor | June 7, 2026

Donald Trump’s sudden abandoning of his $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of alleged political persecution by the government (a.k.a. the insurrectionist slush fund) is a classic bait and switch: Propose something hideously horrible, and then when you magnanimously “drop it” in response to public outcry, you quietly walk away with what you wanted all along — immunity from IRS audits for Trump and his family, which acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has confirmed is still part of the plan. Nice try. We should all be noticing this and pondering the question: If we have to pay taxes so we don’t get audited and prosecuted, why don’t the Trumps? If they can never be audited, how would the IRS ever prove that whatever number they choose to put down on their return is not an accurate one?

Linda Falcao, Baltimore

You could not have made this up: Our president actually tried to get away with establishing a slush fund with $1.776 billion of taxpayer money to reward criminals, likely including those who beat, crushed, and sprayed with poison the noble and brave Capitol Police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol and our system of governance on this country’s modern day of infamy, Jan. 6, 2021.

It was only after bipartisan outrage over the scheme that the president backed down, at least for now, the nation now on notice that the heist will not be pursued at this time.

The fact that such an outrageous slap in the face of the people of this country could ever see the light of day exemplifies the moral rot of Donald Trump and the many stooges he has around him in his second reign as one who pretends to have the best interests of the American people at heart.

The late journalist Robert Novak was absolutely right when he said, “Always love your country, but never trust your government.” Those sage words could not be more appropriate in this era of open corruption practiced by our president and his cronies.

Oren Spiegler, Peters Township

My grandparents, Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe, arrived in this country around 1920. The relatives they left behind were not so lucky. None survived; many likely perished in German concentration camps during World War II.

So it is a particular horror to know that our own government now imprisons people in detention centers with grotesquely inhumane conditions, without access to legal counsel or even communication with their own families. Sen. Cory Booker, noting that the overwhelming majority of the detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark, N.J., have committed no crimes, describes the center as a “moral stain on our nation.”

Each of us has an obligation to speak out against this madness. When this sorry chapter in our history finally comes to a close, will we be remembered among those who stood up for human dignity? Or shall we lower our heads in shame, like the many German citizens during World War II who chose to ignore what was going on before their very eyes?

Thomas Whitman, Philadelphia

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