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To the editor:
The irony is almost beyond belief. We have a president fixated on two contradictory goals. He is obsessed with the notion that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing about the end of wars we never knew about in countries he could never identify on a map and striving to bring about ceasefires in Gaza and Ukraine. But while the president claims to want peace in distant lands, he is determined to inflict suffering, even death, upon various groups of people in our own hemisphere.
Immigrants have been rounded up, separated from their families and housed in squalid detention facilities reminiscent of concentration camps. Suspected drug dealers have been bombed and killed in international waters, not arrested, not charged with any crime. And Trump is determined to use the DOJ to punish his political critics with bogus criminal indictments.
Trump is the first president in our history to be openly a divider, not a uniter. Even presidents such as Richard Nixon and Andrew Jackson, who probably hated their critics with the same venom as Trump, wanted at least the appearance of being a uniter. But Trump is quite open about the fact he hates those who oppose him, wish them nothing but ill and would like to see them suffer. From comedians to journalists to movie stars to former presidents and liberals everywhere: Oppose Trump and you will feel his wrath. His goal is to normalize authoritarianism.
Trump has a thin skin and never takes the high road. Perhaps this is why his hard-core followers loves him so much. He says it's OK to hate; it's OK to look for scapegoats and demonize them. Charlie Kirk's widow can forgive her husband's killer, but Trump can't forgive his perceived enemies. He hates them and will use his enormous powers to crush them, even if that means trashing the Constitution. But optimists among us still believe our democracy will survive.
Ray Clasen
North Fort Myers