For the past three years I’ve been watching the one-time reality show host and failed capitalist, who was installed as the president of the United States in January of 2017, flaunt one after another of our traditional democratic values. 

After each episode of outrageous and illegal behaviors and lies I would think, “Surely that is it; now the people will see just what a selfish and vainglorious sod the man is and turn against him.”

But, I am sorry to say, that hasn’t happened.

For three and a half years now he has been able to trash and disparage our allies and suck up to our enemies with impunity. The House impeached him, but senators such as McConnell and Paul would not even vote to hear sworn testimony concerning his crimes and transgressions. 

In spite of what senator Susan Collins said the only lesson that Trump learned from his impeachment was that he could literally get away with anything.

But in the past few weeks his behavior has taken a dark and sinister turn. American intelligence agencies have reported that the Russians paid bounties of $100,000 and more to the Taliban for every American they killed in Afghanistan. In spite of the fact that Trump was briefed on this information in February he denied it and, to this day, refuses to hold his friend and patron Vladimir Putin accountable.  

Upwards of 170,000 Americans have been killed by the Covid-19 virus while Trump says, “It is what it is” and refuses to take actions to assist the states in their efforts to protect their citizens.

His latest outrageous proposal is to “Suspend the payroll (FICA) tax on employees and employers.” He has said that if he is re-elected in November that he will “make the suspension permanent!” 

Do the American people not realize that the payroll tax funds Social Security?

The father of Social Security, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, said this about Social Security funding: “We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.”

Well Trump is the “damn politician” who plans to defund Social Security. Not only that but his next step will be to default on the $3 trillion that the U.S. Treasury owes the Social Security Trust Fund!

Jim Porter

Danville