According to defectors, Kim Jung Un kills his “enemies” with flame-throwers, anti-aircraft fire and has some torn apart by packs of dogs. In North Korea if one tunes one’s radio to any channel other than North Korean state propaganda, one’s entire family can be put into a concentration camp along with hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens where they are re-educated, tortured, starved, (one defector said he had seen children fighting over corn kernels retrieved from cow dung) and worked to death. But, Trump said Kim “loves his people and they love him” and that he and Kim “fell in love.” He also said Kim told him, “very strongly” that he did not know what his guards had done to American student, Otto Warmbier, and “I believe him.” Otto’s parents disagree. Strongly!

At Helsinki, in front of the entire world, President Trump said that the heads of his 17 intelligence agencies — virtually all of whom are Republicans, some appointed by Trump himself — told him Russia had interfered in the 2016 election, but that Putin had denied it “very strongly” and “I believe Putin.”

At the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Turkey, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was butchered by a team of Saudi Arabian assassins specifically flown to Turkey for that purpose. Nothing is done in Saudi Arabia without the approval of the Prince, but Prince Salman denied “very strongly” knowing about the killing, and Trump said he believed him. Prince Salman also killed or imprisoned some of his rivals for the position of Saudi head of state, possibly using information given to him by his friend, presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.

In 2016, voters elected someone they knew was a con-man, but they did not know he was the fool the previous paragraphs detail. Nor did they know he was as corrupt and incompetent as I believe he proves every day that he is. They knew he had been a business crook his entire life, and that he had probably cheated on his taxes, but they thought, like he did, that made him smart. They thought he would be able to run the government in a smart way and make deals as he supposedly had in business. They did not know he began his business life with nearly $500 million (in today’s dollars) from his father who continued to bail him out, financially, until his death.

Trump tweeted on May 7, 2015, that he was the only Republican candidate who would not cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. His budget for the coming fiscal year includes $845 billion in cuts to Medicare, $25 billion in cuts to Social Security and $1.5 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over 10 years, as well as deep cuts to science, education, food stamps and anything else that helps regular people. His tax cuts have added over $1 trillion to our deficit — a deficit which he said he would eliminate in eight years. Meanwhile, our trade deficit for the year is a record high $891 billion.

MAGA!

Lonna Gooden Van Horn

Northwood