Letters to the Editor | May 24, 2026

Donald Trump has negotiated a deal with the IRS to prevent audits or inquiries into any tax filings for him, his family, and his businesses. Ever. No one has ever heard of a president doing something so obviously corrupt.

It’s not surprising, though. From Day One, Trump has used the presidency to enrich himself and his family. It’s grift with a capital G. Yet, Americans voted to bring him back for a second disastrous term.

That is our burden to share. The pain and suffering we have experienced under this man is self-inflicted. We knew who he was, we knew he was corrupt, and we still elected him anyway.

History will record us as fools who wouldn’t learn our lesson. Now, we just have to suffer. And to know that we invited the fox into the henhouse.

Barry Adams, Malvern

The president’s Department of Justice has established a monetary reward of $1.776 billion for “victims” of then-President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice that allegedly persecuted Trump partisans. Redress for purported lawfare could be monetary compensation for those who attacked the U.S. Capitol, clashing with the police in a brazen assault to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

At least seven people died — including five on-scene and two by suicide days following the deadly riot. About 140 law enforcement officers were injured.

Those 1,600 insurrectionists are now in line to receive, on average, about a million dollars each for their criminal actions on Jan. 6, 2021 — a date that will forever tarnish the legacy of a democratic republic and its 220-year history of peaceful transitions of power; an unbroken chain that stretched from George Washington in 1797 to Barack Obama in 2017. Yes, the sitting president still claims the armed mob of his supporters were “great patriots,” and the day was one of “love and peace.”

His message is clear: We are not to believe our lying eyes, and physical violence is not only tolerated but lauded when the Trumpian reign is set to expire. Will our nation experience the same set of events should the Democrats retake the House in the November midterms? Have our lawmakers learned anything constructive when an authoritarian despot loses political control? Historians are watching.

James L. DeBoy, Lancaster

Over the course of the last 17 months, our democracy has been tested as never before.

Among all the unprecedented assaults on our democracy since the start of the second Trump administration, this past Saturday’s events firmly established that the United States no longer is the beacon on the hill. Rather, it is a corrupt, decaying dictatorship masquerading as a democracy. Now comes word that President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS has been settled in exchange for the U.S. Department of Justice setting up a $1.776 billion fund to provide redress for claims of those who allegedly were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, including those who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election by storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

If finalized, this settlement — an unprecedented act of self-dealing by a U.S. president — would be funded by our taxpayer dollars. On the same day as this appalling proposal was reported, a Republican U.S. senator, Bill Cassidy, who had the moral integrity to vote to impeach the president who incited that act of treason, was defeated in his primary to be reelected after being targeted for that act of patriotism. The Republicans in Louisiana should be ashamed, the members of Congress who continue to countenance these attacks on our democracy should be ashamed, the courts which turn a blind eye to the rule of law should be ashamed, as should we as Americans.

Mary Ellen Nepps, East Norriton

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