Letters: Trump is right — America is not always great. What if we give him a chance to fix it?
Yes, President Donald Trump (and others) are asking for changes, some of them needed, others that may seem odd. I do wish the Trump administration would focus immigration raids on deporting criminals.
Not everything in our country has gone right in the past 50 years.
We have grown complacent about giving our money to anyone who asks or appears to think they need something. I think accountability is a good thing; we need to know where our money is going and how it's going to be spent.
Not every research project at every college is worth researching — many are absurd and unnecessary. And I think funding institutions that are biased is wrong.
It would be nice if people saved their hatred and biases against the Trump administration until we see the results. I think most people will find that many or most of these changes are not bad and probably needed.
Kathleen McGrath Crabbe, San Francisco
Not based on facts
Regarding 'California's resistance to Trump: This could be our finest hour' (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, July 6): Joe Mathews describes President Donald Trump as a dictator, like Vladimir Putin. The irony must have escaped Mathews because he felt free to write a hypercritical column of Trump without fear of repercussions and the 'secret police.'
Somehow, millions showed up recently to protest at No Kings rallies and without Trump trying to intervene. Can anyone imagine Putin putting up with those protests?
Mathews further claims that Trump 'lawlessly seized control of our California National Guard,' yet there is a link to a story about a federal appeals court ruling saying the president acted legally.
Another wild claim is that Trump is out to 'destroy our economy,' however, the linked story says nothing about specifically targeting California.
If Mathews believes resistance to Trump is a necessary noble cause for Californians, utilizing facts would work better than hyperbole.
Michael Singer, Santa Rosa
Universities fuel U.S.
Amidst the chaos of America, the Fourth of July was a difficult holiday this year. As a nation, we are moving away from shared values and the slow, but steady progress that have been pillars in my 37-year lifetime.
A glimmer of solace over the weekend was the American flags hanging from the cranes that are building UCSF's expanded Parnassus campus. Signs that, despite the darkness and the baseless attacks on American higher education, here in San Francisco and California, we recognize the power and opportunity of world-class research universities and medical innovation.
Our universities play a distinct role in generating economic growth, making future-altering discoveries and training the next generation of America's workforce and health care providers.
Brendan O'Callaghan, San Francisco
Deadly consequences
The death toll from flooding on the Guadalupe River in Texas is rising, and many girls are still missing from a Christian summer camp.
The linkages between greenhouse gas emissions, climate warming and extreme rainfall and flooding are well-established in the scientific literature.
Yet President Donald Trump has called climate change a 'hoax' and is dismantling former President Joe Biden's program to reduce emissions and has taken an axe to the agencies — the National Weather Service and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration — charged with tracking and modeling extreme weather events.
It is a bitter and tragic irony that many of the parents of those poor girls swept away in the flood are most likely ardent supporters of President Trump.
Robert Coats, Berkeley
Criticism is right
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Axios
19 minutes ago
- Axios
Padilla to propose bill easing immigrant residency rules
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) is introducing a bill that would amend decades-old requirements for immigrants seeking permanent status — another long-shot proposal amid the Trump administration's immigration raids. The big picture: Congress has not passed a major immigration overhaul since 1986, resulting in residency requirements that are now over 50 years old. Zoom in: Under a bill that Padilla will announce Friday, the Immigration Act of 1929 would be amended so some immigrants may qualify for lawful permanent resident status if they have lived in the U.S. continuously for at least seven years. The current registry cutoff date is January 1, 1972 — more than 50 years ago. The change would provide a pathway to a green card for DACA recipients and those who had temporary protective status (TPS) State of play: The proposal comes as the Trump administration is letting TPS deals expire and going after what could be hundreds of thousands more immigrants who were given humanitarian "parole" under former President Biden. Many of those immigrants are being detained at immigration court hearings and are being placed in removal proceedings. What they're saying:"Roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States today, yet most have no way to earn permanent legal status," Padilla's office said in a statement. "The overwhelming majority of these undocumented immigrants have established roots in the U.S. They work in essential jobs and pay taxes." His office said Padilla will formally introduce his bill on Monday. Reality check: Republicans control both chambers in Congress and such immigration proposals are hardly getting heard. Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) have introduced the DIGNITY Act of 2025, a bill that is lingering in the House, which focuses on border security, mandatory E-Verify, asylum reform and legal immigration reform. Zoom out: Padilla's latest bill comes after he and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced a bill that would ban federal immigration agents from wearing most face coverings but require them to wear visible ID during public enforcement operations. That long-shot proposal comes following images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans. What we're watching: The pressure to rein in some of ICE's enforcement tactics does have support among some conservatives worried over policing.
USA Today
19 minutes ago
- USA Today
We're creating AI that could surveil US citizens. And the government is in on it.
Tech companies' lack of transparency and accountability in developing surveillance tools that governments can use is unacceptable. President Donald Trump recently gathered CEOs for a summit about renewing the United States 'spiritually and financially.' At the top of the agenda was a closer look at 'American values' such as faith and freedom. There is cause for alarm, however. Centuries after Americans declared independence from the British monarchy, our freedom and liberty are under threat − not only from foreign governments like China, but potentially our own. America's surveillance state is spreading as the federal government collects personal data of hundreds of millions of Americans. In the age of artificial intelligence, with data collection accelerating at an unprecedented rate, our privacy has never been more vulnerable. Who is the culprit? The data collectors range from the National Security Agency to Silicon Valley's cadre of data-hungry technology companies. Add to that list a new organization: Palantir. While it is not a household name like Google or Netflix, it is soon to be a common domestic concern. The technology company's surveillance operation has exploded in recent months, raising the possibility of creating a full-fledged surveillance state. Opinion: AI knows we shouldn't trust it for everything. I know because I asked it. Since January, Palantir has received more than $113 million in federal funds, according to The New York Times, not including a $795 million Defense Department contract awarded in May. While the federal government increased data sharing across agencies (with Palantir's help), the company continues to shop its technology to the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service. AI technology could be repurposed for sinister uses We are talking about technology that can be weaponized. While Palantir's current focus is to identify people in the United States illegally, tracking movements in real time, the company is also building the infrastructure that could be used for a massive surveillance state. Former Palantir employees have warned about the potential for the company's AI tools to surveil American citizens with a disregard for personal privacy. It is not so far-fetched. Palantir's AI software is used by the Israeli Defense Forces to strike targets in Gaza. It is used to assist the U.S. Defense Department in analyzing drone footage. And it has been used by the Los Angeles Police Department to forecast crime patterns. This is called 'predictive policing.' If "Minority Report"was not a horror movie before, it is now. Given the government's penchant for abusing power (see: COVID-19 censorship or the NSA spying scandal), does this not seem like an obvious move against our civil liberties? For years, the NSA engaged in the mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records, as was exposed in 2013. Between 2001 and 2007, government wiretapping − executed without warrants − affected millions of U.S. citizens. Now, the same agencies are tapping into the power of AI to expand government surveillance in once unimaginable ways. Opinion: AI is changing our world. At what point will it change our reality? Of course, the federal government can already access a wide range of our personal data, but it is often separated by agency. Washington, DC, can create exponentially more detailed profiles on all of us by sharing data with the help of Palantir's AI tools. Even when surveilling noncitizens, the government's data collection inevitably tracks individual Americans based on their own interactions with these noncitizens. The government's data collection is based on information from police departments, financial institutions and other entities, like Palantir. Big government and big tech partnership raises concerns Even if the alliance between the government and Palantir works as intended, it is a potential threat to our civil liberties. Political dissidents could become targets. Not even those with limited public personas are safe from the state's detailed profiling machine. These systems are not perfect, and neither are our leaders. What happens when AI systems fail? What happens when data collection goes haywire? Palantir is hardly alone. OpenAI recently launched OpenAI for Government, which aims to equip federal, state and local leaders with advanced AI tools. OpenAI claims to serve the 'public good' and 'bolster national security readiness,' but why would private citizens take that at face value? What does 'readiness' actually mean, in practice? At the moment, many of our elected officials do not have answers to these questions, or they are just ignoring them. The same goes for OpenAI and Palantir, which are all too comfortable amassing ever-larger federal contracts and greater market share. This lack of transparency or accountability is unacceptable. The only thing worse than the overreach of Big Government is Big Tech in bed with Big Government. For those who care about freedom and liberty, now is the time to speak up, before it is too late. Peyton Hornberger serves as communications director at The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the implications of advanced artificial intelligence.
USA Today
19 minutes ago
- USA Today
'Terrific guy': The Trump-Epstein party boy friendship lasted a decade, ended badly
Long before the little black book, before the conspiracy theories, before one died by suicide in jail and one ascended to the White House, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were poster boys for '90s New York City excess. Parties. Models. Mansions. They danced with cheerleaders at Mar-a-Lago and dined with celebrities in Manhattan. Trump flew on Epstein's private jet between New York – where they lived blocks apart − and Florida, where they owned mansions 2 miles from each other. Their lives intersected over decades, with Epstein once claiming he introduced Trump to his third wife, Melania. 'Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were both horny rich guys with an eye for young models,' Michael Gross, author of the 1995 book 'Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women,' told USA TODAY. Now, their friendship plagues Trump's second term in the White House. More: Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? DOJ turns to Jeffrey Epstein's ex-partner. Trump hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing in the Epstein case, but he is among the dozens of politicians, actors and tech leaders connected to the billionaire who was first convicted in 2008 of paying teenage girls for sex acts and accused in 2019 in a sprawling sex trafficking scheme. Epstein died before he went to trial on those charges. Though dead nearly six years, Epstein now dominates Trump's agenda amid a tornado of outrage since the White House and Department of Justice tried to close the book on the case after the president and his closest allies – including the attorney general and the FBI director – spent years claiming Democrats had suppressed evidence of an Epstein 'client list' and a wider child abuse conspiracy. More: Can Trump pardon Ghislaine Maxwell? When does Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator get out? "We already know almost everything there is to be known about the Epstein files. The story isn't Epstein anymore. It's Donald Trump talking about Epstein," says Mike Rothschild, author of "The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything. Trump's MAGA movement has rebelled after being promised lurid Epstein revelations by the very officials who now say there are none. On July 22, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, sent the House of Representatives on an early summer recess to prevent passage of a bipartisan measure forcing the DOJ to release its Epstein documents. "The GOP is so intent on not talking about Epstein and not releasing any details, it makes you wonder if there is something they don't want released," Rothschild said. "It starts driving you toward conspiracy theory." More: Trump's Epstein problem grows: Even his voters want more files released On July 22, Trump said the Epstein furor was 'sort of a witch hunt,' and railed against the media, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. One day later, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that he was named multiple times in the government's files on Epstein. But long before Epstein's conviction and questions about who might want his secrets buried, he and Trump were charter members of a decadent New York party scene. When Donald met Jeffrey Epstein and Trump met, it's believed, in 1990 when Epstein bought a mansion 2 miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and estate. Born seven years and a borough apart in New York, Epstein was from Brooklyn and Trump from Queens. They partied hard, but neither drank alcohol. Trump was living loud in 1990. He had divorced his first wife, Ivana, with whom he had three children, and was dating model Marla Maples. Epstein was rich and single, a former high school teacher running his own financial advisory firm. Trump was known for hosting parties at the Plaza Hotel, which he owned at the time, that attracted rich men and younger women. 'If they were checking IDs, it was to make sure the girls were young enough,' Gross, who's known Trump for more than 40 years, said jokingly. It wasn't enough to simply invite models to events: Trump started his own agency and Epstein invested in one. Trump launched Trump Models in 1999. It represented Melania Knauss, who would later become his wife, and signed on teen models such as Alexia Palmer. More: Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down House early amid Jeffrey Epstein drama Epstein would later invest in Jean-Luc Brunel's MC2 modeling agency. Brunel had been banned from his former agency in Europe after accusations of abuse. Trump and Epstein were 'representative of a type that has nibbled at the edges of the modeling business. If you're in the market for women as sex toys, a higher echelon of that is models. They are, by definition, beautiful women. They also are beautiful young women,' Gross says. 'You can go from there.' Brunel was suspected of transporting girls or young women for Epstein. In 2022, less than three years after Epstein's death, he died by suicide in a French jail. 'Rhythm is a Dancer' In July 2019, after Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, Trump said in the Oval Office that he was 'not a fan' of the financier. But it wasn't always that way. In 1992, Epstein joined Trump for a party at Mar-a-Lago, where a video shows Trump chatting and laughing next to Epstein. Trump sways to the Eurodance hit 'Rhythm is a Dancer,' as the pair hang with cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. Later that year, Trump and Epstein would again meet at Mar-a-Lago, at an invite-only event for a 'calendar girl' competition organized by George Houraney, according to the New York Times. The Florida businessman had created the event at Trump's request. "At the very first party,' Houraney told the Times, 'I said, 'Who's coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.' It was him and Epstein.' Epstein moved into one of the largest private homes in Manhattan in 1995, a townhouse previously owned by billionaire Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner. Trump was 1 mile away in a penthouse at Trump Tower. 'Terrific guy,' he famously told New York magazine in 2002 for a story that called Epstein an "international money man of mystery." 'He's a lot of fun to be with," Trump said. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." 'I sort of get away with things' When his modeling agency never quite took off, Trump turned to beauty pageants. In October 1996, he bought Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA. In a 2005 interview with Howard Stern, Trump bragged about his access to contestants, some of whom were as young as 14. 'I'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else and no men are anywhere …. I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it,' Trump told Stern. 'The girls are standing there with no clothes on, and so I sort of get away with things like that,' he said. Tasha Dixon was competing in the Miss USA pageant in 2001 in Gary, Indiana, when she, a former Miss Arizona, met Trump. He walked in, she told CNN, as contestants changed into their bikinis. The theme that year was empowering women. "Who do you complain to? He owns the pageant,' she said. As Trump approached his third marriage − and alleged affairs, which he denies, with an adult film star and a former Playboy playmate − court testimony shows his friend Epstein was abusing teenagers. Sometime in the summer of 2020, a 16-year-old Mar-a-Lago locker room assistant was recruited into Epstein's circle by Epstein's procuror and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. She would later accuse Epstein of years of sexual abuse. Virginia Giuffre died by suicide last April at the age of 41. A lenient plea deal Epstein received from Florida state and federal prosecutors in 2008 included restitution to 36 victims. A 2019 federal indictment cited "dozens" of victims. The breakup In 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported, Epstein received a leather-bound volume of tributes from friends for his 50th birthday. A lewd message in the book was attributed to Trump, the paper reported. It ended: 'Happy Birthday − and may every day be another wonderful secret.' (Trump denied writing the letter and has sued the Wall Street Journal over the report.) A year after Epstein turned 50, Trump, in his book "Trump ‒ How to Get Rich," described a call from a person he called "the mysterious Jeffrey." "As mysterious as Jeffrey is, he's one of the few people I know who can get by on just a first name," Trump wrote. "My staff never asks for a last name in his case, which in a way puts him up there with Elvis." But that year, Epstein and Trump fell out over an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach called Maison de l'Amitie − the House of Friendship. Trump outbid Epstein for the estate, paying $41 million, and in 2008 flipped it for $95 million to a Russian billionaire. Other reports say they broke after Ghislaine Maxwell solicited the daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member and her father complained to Trump. 'The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep," said White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. Maxwell is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking a minor to Epstein for sexual abuse. After her 2020 arrest, when asked if Maxwell might cut a deal with prosecutors, Trump said: "I just wish her well." On July 24, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as a criminal defense lawyer for Trump, flew to Florida to meet Maxwell at a women's prison. 'Boring stuff' Trump and Epstein appear to have not spoken for 15 years before his death. As Epstein continues to dog his presidency, Trump says he's bewildered by the attention. 'I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody," he told reporters. "It's pretty boring stuff.'
