Letters: President Donald Trump needs to prioritize the needs of Americans, not help Israel go to war

Chicago Tribune

26-06-2025

I voted for President Donald Trump to 'Make America Great Again,' not to fight against America. We need to ask our elected representatives and the president whose interests are more important: the interests of Americans who pay their bills or those of a foreign country that has received billions of dollars over the past 15 years?
Americans have the right to know why we are entering a third Middle East war in that same time frame. Don't our elected representatives see the massive homelessness, a broken health care system, unaffordable education, Social Security on the brink and seniors forced to work into their 70s just to put food on the table?
The president and our elected representatives need to prioritize the interests of America, not those of other countries. Americans are not a lobby, but our votes are what get these officials into the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and White House.By denying the world's most dangerous nation nuclear weapons — a country that preaches 'death to America' — President Donald Trump is worthy only of commendation, not condemnation. His actions promote peace. The risk-reward equation is one-sided.
Even so, some reflexively argue that the president committed an 'impeachable' offense, declared 'war' or broke the law by failing to get congressional approval. They are wrong on multiple levels.
The critics hang their hat on the War Powers Resolution (WPR), a law passed by Congress in 1973 over President Richard Nixon's veto. Because it restricts a president's commander-in-chief power, many scholars argue it is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has never ruled whether it is constitutional.
But even assuming the WPR is constitutional and further assuming it's applicable here, Trump fully complied with it. Under the WPR, a president may deploy forces without congressional approval for up to 60 days.
Here, one could argue President Trump did not deploy forces, since it was a limited, precise aerial strike with no troops on the ground. But even if the WPR does apply, the forces were 'withdrawn' in minutes, far less than 60 days, meaning the president complied.
Moreover, as a practical matter, all of Trump's predecessors — including Barack Obama — have engaged actual troops in faraway places without obtaining congressional permission.
All said, you can debate whether you agree with Trump's actions but not whether he acted legally.American presidents are our defenders and not our apologists. They are the leaders of our country with the duty to defend and protect Americans.
Yes, President Donald Trump did not ask Congress for the OK to bomb Iran's nuclear sites. But neither did Bill Clinton, to bomb Serbia, nor Barack Obama, to have Osama bin Laden assassinated.Is the U.S. a peace-loving or warmongering nation?
Most would likely say 'peace-loving.' However, in my lifetime, and before the recent attack on Iran, we have been involved in six major wars: World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan. Can any other country come close to that war record?
With the notable exception of WWII (and possibly Korea), all the other wars are questionable: Remember Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that did not exist and our leaving Vietnam and Afghanistan with our tail between our legs.
This list of wars excludes other military adventures of a smaller scale, such as our invasions of Grenada (1983) and Panama (1989-90) and our bombing of Libya in 1986. It also excludes covert actions such as the civil wars triggered in Guatemala and Chile when the CIA helped oust democratically elected governments we did not like. Again, can any other country come even close?
Also, consider the fact the U. S. has more military bases overseas than any other country by far! By one count, we have 750 military installations spanning 80 countries. Nearly 170,000 active-duty troops are stationed abroad, a number larger than the entire standing army of many countries, including Canada.
Finally, U.S. military spending exceeds that of the next nine countries , a list that includes robust spending by China and Russia. If we reallocated some of that to certain domestic needs, might we become a civilized country?
For example, there are more than 100 countries that have a lower murder rate than that of the U.S. Our country also ranks No. 48 in terms of life expectancy and No. 49 in terms of infant mortality (behind Cuba and Uruguay, for example), and we lag far behind many countries in terms of educational attainment.
None of this takes away from my appreciation of the service and sacrifices of our veterans. I always go out of my way to thank them.
I raise a larger question that goes beyond the patriotism of those who have served. It is a question about the soul of our nation and what kind of country we are when it comes to war and peace.
President Dwight Eisenhower, a general, warned of the dangers of the 'military-industrial' complex. Have we heeded his warning?I have as much faith in President Donald Trump's assessment that the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities virtually obliterated its nuclear capabilities as I did with his declaration that 'COVID is going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear.'Are we living in the times of World War II Germany? A mother followed the rules and is now being held in a detention camp in Kentucky. Immigrant mothers and fathers are being separated from their children. Sounds like families being separated to go to concentration camps.
What is wrong with our government? Who is going to stand up for what is happening in our country?
I will.The United States of America is a country long overdue for sweeping changes. We have considered ourselves favorably; however, we have become akin to a bloated and unhealthy human who is uncouth and ignorant.
Our cities languish in poverty, subpar housing and inadequate educational opportunities as well as crime and congestion. Suburbia is no better, with its uninventive subdivisions and tract homes that sell at inflated prices. We have allowed our developers to ensure that everyone in the suburbs is dependent on a personal vehicle, most of which are of the supersized variety. Rural communities are stagnant with outmigration, while businesses there are confined to dollar stores, gas stations and fast food outlets.
We don't desire manufacturing jobs and service sector employment. We want good jobs. We need a vision of America that is consistent with the current global viewpoint on the environment, societal health and upward mobility for everyone.
Today, we are a country teetering on collapse. Our politicians have been divisive and self-serving and only pander to our citizenry. We have 'leaders' in leadership who have forgotten the 'servant' portion of 'public servant.'
Maybe it has been the drugs — the prescription medications, the over-the-counter stuff, the supplements, the illegal narcotics or the recreational caffeine, alcohol or tobacco — that have kept us from perceiving that we live in a house that is decaying. Our quick-fix solutions have been short-sighted and based on nostalgia rather than a proactive treatment plan to prevent decay and revitalize ourselves.
By this stage in time, we should be in the vanguard of countries in terms of renewable energy, recycling, women's rights and minority equity, although we have squandered our head start in favor of lining the pockets of those already with big budgets.
I, for one, would like to abandon this ship, for I see the American experiment in individualism, democracy and capitalism as a failure. Pass around the kitty, and I will gladly depart for Iceland or Norway if they'll have me.
Despite being born in the USA to parents born in the USA, I am ready to self-deport. Ready to leave. Ready to escape.The new book 'Original Sin' by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson feeds the narrative that President Joe Biden's refusal to drop out of the presidential race handed the victory to Donald Trump. The Tribune also ran an editorial to that effect about six months ago.
You are all wrong about this. There was no way for Democrats to win in 2024.
If Biden had left the race earlier, Kamala Harris would certainly have been the nominee. And then she would have lost.
Most of the people she needed to support her, the people who were undecided, maybe not well informed, and many who were upset about Gaza, wanted one thing from her: to distance herself from Biden. They wanted her to show she didn't support all his policies and wasn't going to continue them.
This put her in an impossible situation. She was serving as his vice president. She couldn't publicly oppose him or reject him. Maybe she could have found some way to come across more as her own person, but for the most part, these voters were demanding her to do the one thing she couldn't do: Oppose her own president.
For these voters, Harris wasn't running against Donald Trump; she was running against Biden.
That is why this election was unwinnable. So let's please stop dumping on Biden.Someone needs to tell U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor that her liberal bias is showing. She doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the word 'temporary.'I attended Indivisible Chicago's 'No Kings' rally at Daley Center in Chicago on June 14 and was among the tens of thousands of people from Chicago and Chicagoland there. As evidenced by the myriad homemade signs on view, things to protest ran the gamut of the Donald Trump administration's outrageous attempts to: upend American democracy; destroy the workings of federal government; round up and deport immigrants, and even U.S. citizens, without due process; diminish the quality and availability of health care; gut environmental protection laws and regulations; monetize the presidency; release favored convicted felons; and further fill the pockets of billionaires at the expense of the less fortunate.
The Daley Center protest was just one of the reported 1,500 similar protests, large and small, conducted across the country, and by a million or more Americans, that day against the current administration and the failed Republican Congress It was robust and violence-free like nearly all these protests have been.
Nevertheless, one may wonder how effective such protests could be. I found an answer recently in an excerpt from then-U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy's June 1966 speech to the National Union of South African Students in Apartheid South Africa. Here's what Kennedy said, in part:
'Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.'
The takeaway for me is: Keep making waves! And so, I hope, we all shall.