Letters to the Editor (June 5, 2025)

Doing business while serving as president

Editor:

Donald Trump’s first overseas trip? To a trusted ally? No! To Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

I doubt many Americans even know where Qatar or the United Arab Emirates are. Why travel there?

The top reason is that the Trump organization, in which Trump is still heavily involved, has deep ongoing business dealings with all three countries.

Trump always looks out for himself and his family’s business, not you. Saudi Arabia? He is very chummy with its de facto ruler and dictator, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was responsible for murdering a Washington Post reporter in Turkey, not to mention ordering the beheading of large numbers of his own people.

A president has a tremendous number of responsibilities including working with Congress, managing government agencies, dealing with actual overseas threats and national issues like health care for Americans, and actually addressing the massive and growing national debt.

Trump? He spends much of his time giving rambling, sometimes incoherent speeches fuming over his imagined enemies and tasking federal officials like his attack dog AG Pam Bondi to harass and intimidate anyone he thinks has slighted him.

He promotes his personally-enriching meme coin, schilling personal access to him by soliciting cash, and, do not forget, spending lots and lots of time playing golf. He also found time to post what some actual Christians might call sacrilege, posting an image of himself as a pope.

No other president has behaved like such a buffoon. Never forget, in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States, Mr. Instability is the only person with the authority to respond to an attack.

Let that sink in. God help us.

James Rickey

Los Lunas