Letters to the Editor | March 6, 2025

The president’s Tuesday address to a joint session of Congress was vintage Donald Trump. It was filled with a litany of falsehoods, greatly exaggerated accomplishments, and his typical laundry list of grievances. One of his whoppers was the patently untrue and braggadocian claim that he won the election in a “landslide.” He did not. He claimed millions of “dead” Americans are receiving a Social Security check. They are not. He also stated he would balance the budget. He will not. Much of what he said was downright laughable, and the response to some of those comments from Democrats was, in fact, quite appropriately, their laughing out loud. One accomplishment the man can truly claim is his ability to talk on and on and on. His speech droned on for a record-breaking hour and 40 minutes. Now that’s an unfortunate record that might well stand for a very long time.

Ken Derow, Swarthmore

As an American and Army veteran, I want to thank Volodymyr Zelensky for his role model leadership, courage, and determination to defend Ukraine and democracy by fighting Russia’s invasion, sustaining the war effort for three years, and materially diminishing Moscow’s military capabilities. With zero American lives lost in battle and less than $500 spent per American ($182.8 billion in Congress-approved aid packages), Zelensky’s military and civilian population (one-quarter of Russia’s size) helped America and allies by destroying or disabling thousands of Russian aircraft, tens of thousands of land-based vehicles, multiple communication systems, and more. Russia’s military command structure, morale, and recruiting have degraded to pre-Cold War lows. American defense contractors saw how weapons systems perform in wartime conditions. Our economy benefited from Americans building war materials in American plants to refresh U.S. stockpiles. Zelensky has thanked America many times for our support. It is now time for America to thank him. Thank you, Volodymyr Zelensky!

Fred Walker, Wyndmoor

With the Republican Party in control of the White House, both houses of Congress, as well as a favorable U.S. Supreme Court, any other president would have boldly used those advantages to get legislation passed to review government waste. Instead, from President Donald Trump came a maelstrom of executive orders — including direction to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which provided humanitarian aid around the world. Since then, more than 100 programs have been either shut down or suspended. No thought was apparently given to continuing aid to some of the world’s most vulnerable while a thorough review of programs was conducted. As a result, millions will starve, be without lifesaving medicine, or lose other assistance. Thousands of workers, none of whom get rich doing their jobs, had minutes to vacate their workspace. There was no justification for this approach. Clearly, the objective was to demonstrate how callous the U.S. could be toward human beings in need. Instead of “Make America Great,” maybe a more apt slogan would be “Make America Heartless.”

Larry Blankemeyer, Richboro, blanks0330@gmail.com

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