Letters to the Editor | May 28, 2025

Donald Trump’s excuse for mass deportations is to make the U.S. safe. The government says the 238 immigrants sent to a Salvadoran prison are criminals. If that were true, why don’t we have proof? Why hasn’t the government released their names and their alleged crimes? Where are the victims? Without proof and no due process, these poor young men have been given a life sentence. Knowing Trump, if there were evidence, he would be sharing such info with all the media networks. What is really going on? Are we deporting 50 people to get 50 bad actors? Is it 50 to get 25? Is it 50 to get one? Does U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have quotas it must meet? We know there are several innocent detainees in El Salvador whom Trump refuses to have released. How many immigrants have been disappeared? These are human beings.

Hank Schrandt, Newtown

Now that Elon Musk has stepped back from his Department of Government Efficiency — having failed to meaningfully reduce federal spending — it’s time we retire the fantasy that tycoons make good leaders of democracies. Governing is not the same as running a business. It requires compromise, patience, and vision — not the ability to fire people on a whim. Trump proved the same thing. Despite having full control of Congress in his first two years, he passed just one major law: a tax cut. He couldn’t even get an infrastructure bill passed. President Joe Biden, by contrast, passed more bipartisan legislation than any president since LBJ.

Both Musk and Trump have done enormous damage. Musk’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development — based on his chilling belief that “empathy is mankind’s greatest weakness” — were a gift to China, which is now extracting minerals from the very countries we abandoned. These resources are crucial to winning the artificial intelligence race, which will define global power for the next century. Even worse, devastating cuts to university research are forcing brilliant scientists out of work — and out of the country. We are bleeding innovation in medicine, brain research, and beyond.

Yes, government has waste. But you don’t burn down the house to fix a leaky faucet. It’s time we stopped confusing bravado with leadership. The stakes are too high to keep making the same mistake.

Barry Vernick, Philadelphia

Hidden in the reconciliation bill that was recently passed by the House of Representatives is a dangerous provision. It says, “No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued.” The provision even makes the measure retroactive, so if the final bill passes Congress as is, all existing judicial orders where no bond was required would become unenforceable.

In civil proceedings, as in nearly all the cases in which Donald Trump is involved regarding his abuse of power and refusal to acknowledge due process, there is no bond. Thus, if this becomes law, Congress will have stripped the courts of their ability to use the power of contempt to enforce their rulings. Since the Republican-controlled House has, in the past, relinquished its power to Trump’s direction, preventing this provision from becoming law may be our last chance to save our three-branch democracy. Please contact your representative and senators to express your alarm and to ask them to delete this dangerous measure.

Wayne Olson, Philadelphia

Donald Trump operates on a criminal-level double standard. In a recent interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker regarding the impact of his tariffs, Trump stated that a little girl “will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.” So far this year, Trump has taken at least 10 weekend trips on Air Force One to his Mar-a-Lago resort and Doral properties. As of March, the cost of those trips to taxpayers was $26 million. If a little girl should have only two dolls, then it’s only fair that Trump should be allowed only two at taxpayer expense to his Florida resorts. Otherwise, his double standard is beyond outrageous. If not illegal, it’s totally unethical.

T. Butler, West Chester

Memorial Day brings many personal emotions. Among them: disgust, anger, and sorrow. More civilians are killed in war than military combatants. War is not decided by the common folk, but rather by a country’s leaders. Even before I enlisted and went to Vietnam, I knew that the Vietnamese farmer did not know about or understand democracy. Farmers only cared about how much rice their leaders would demand as tribute/tax. War brings out fear and anger, leading to atrocities. I personally know several veterans who witnessed them.

The Pentagon Papers uncovered countless memos that, from the start of the war to its end, made clear our own leaders did not think we could win. How can leaders be held accountable? One idea is fact-finding led by an international group authorized by the International Court of Justice. The World Court would choose a commission composed of civilians from the affected countries — a third from each side — and a third with jurists familiar with international law. On trial would be the leaders — civilian and military — who led the war. We owe it to those who gave their lives fighting, to the innocent civilians, and to those who are still suffering from war.

John “Jack” Marquess, Haddon Heights

Here is a tricky question: Has the United States, over the years, been generous in aiding poor countries? In dollar terms, yes, the U.S. has provided more development assistance than any other country. How about comparing us with other countries that ought to help? Taking into account our population and the size of our economy, we don’t hold up so well. As of the latest statistics, the U.S. was contributing about 0.24% of our national income to poor countries (one dollar out of every 400). For comparison, France, Germany, and Norway contribute two, three, and four times as much. But we are ahead of Portugal, Greece, and Hungary, for example.

I don’t think Americans are less generous than others. But somehow the political system has worked out so that we haven’t done as much as some other countries — France, Germany, and Norway, but also others such as Ireland, Japan, and Switzerland. Regardless, U.S. aid has done much good, reducing extreme poverty around the world, fighting hunger, slowing the spread of AIDS, and more. We can all be proud, even if we wish our country could do more. It is a real shame and, frankly, a national disgrace when billionaires such as Elon Musk and Donald Trump celebrate taking away aid from the world’s poorest people.

Edward Witten, Princeton

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