Trump has done little good, much harm
When I began to read Tom Flickinger’s essay, “A letter to Trump at start of presidency” in the March 12 Observer-Reporter, I started to prepare myself for some humor. The first two paragraphs were so over the top in their praise of Trump that I thought I was in for some entertaining satire. As I read further, I found that Flickinger was completely serious in his effusive tribute to an administration that has done little good and much that is detrimental to our nation on many levels.
He starts by praising Trump’s family for, among other things, their strong character. I suggest that Flickinger research a Trump deal with the corrupt government of Azerbaijan, and that government’s ties and support of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
He describes Trump as a tireless worker, when he is actually more like a tireless tweeter. In fact, he is more like an internet troll and possibly should be called troll in chief rather than tweeter in chief. Flickinger goes on to back up Trump’s attempts to delegitimize the media by describing it as spin doctors for the Obama administration. I do not know what media he is referring to, but I can recall a lot of negative press about Obama in the mainstream media. He suggests that the president should ignore the media and “follow through on the promises you made during the campaign”. In the view of Trump and Flickinger, any negative news reports about the Trump administration are fake news, while any documented lies by Trump are “alternative facts.”
One of Trump’s major campaign promises was that he would “drain the swamp” by doing away with all of the Washington insiders. His Cabinet picks do not reflect this. Two are former cabinet members; three are former members of Congress and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is an oil industry fat cat who received a Russian decoration in person from Vladimir Putin.
Finally I would ask Flickinger what his opinion is of Trump’s outrageous claim, lacking any offered proof, that Barack Obama, when he was president, wiretapped Trump Tower. Talk about fake news.
LeRoy W. Bloom
Lawrence