I found Bill Hudson’s “Trump support” letter interesting, for much of what he left out.
“Border security was excellent.” Well, unless you consider the dire conditions as to why migrants left the lawlessness of their home countries and, of course, Trump separated children from their parents to “deter” migrants from coming. Some of those separations still have not been remedied.
This one really gets me: “Economy was booming.” Conveniently forgetting that the “booming” economy was handed to him on a silver platter by the Obama-Biden administration that brought the country out of the most severe recession since the Great Depression of the ’30s. (I might mention that the Great Recession was handed to Obama-Biden by President Bush.)
“Energy independence,” followed by environmental disaster and global warning. Seems like the present administration wants to switch to alternative energy sources — and at least the automakers agree.
Combining several of his other points: Mr. Hudson has the caveat that Trump’s economy was booming until COVID-19. And that comprises several of his other points. President Biden has had to handle the health crisis from Day One in office.
To be honest, there really is not much a president can do to control food prices, gas prices and other energy increases. Those are all controlled by the open market and COVID-19 threw a wrench into all of them — and they have occurred all over the world. It is not something that happened because President Biden is in office. (You might also want to consider that the U.S. has some of the best medical resources in the world, but fared very poorly in COVID-19 treatment because ultraconservatives sabotaged the administration’s efforts. At least President Biden didn’t suggest injecting Lysol into patients.)
“No new wars.” Has Mr. Hudson considered that Trump turned almost all of our NATO allies against the U.S., and perhaps that is why Vladimir Putin thought he could invade Ukraine, because he thought NATO would crack, when it actually brought NATO together under President Biden’s leadership? Likewise, pulling out of Afghanistan was fulfilling a promise made by Trump! Was it done poorly? Yes and no. The president’s military advisers told him that the Afghans would fend for themselves for a lot longer than they did. So, it was a mess — to everyone’s surprise.
“Keeping nuclear weapons out of Iran.” What? It was Trump who pulled out of the Iran agreement. That is when Iran restarted its nuclear program again. President Biden has been trying to reestablish the agreement.
“Massive deregulation.” Like here in Texas where the power grid failed (resulting in more than 300 deaths and billions of dollars in damage) because the industry had lax regulations. There are reasons for regulations and usually they are to protect the public.
“Adding tariffs.” The only people who pay for them are the ones who buy the imported products — us!
“Communicating with ‘adversaries.’” Like Russia, Iran and China? See where that has gotten us: It has just emboldened them.
And finally: “Commitment to law and enforcement.” I have never heard once that President Biden has suggested defunding the police. Indeed, it was Trump who was impeached twice and would have been convicted each time if it were not for his cronies. The evidence was there in both cases, it is just that Mitch McConnell would not let either progress. Seems like Trump may still be taken to criminal court unless his lawyers tie the courts up from now until the end of the century.
And by the way, Mr. Hudson, I am very proud of America. I am just not proud of Trump and his ilk.
Gerard Pahl lives in Edinburg.
