Dear Mr. President.

​In my last blog I suggested ways to express your dismay with the Trump Administration. One such action was to write a comment to the White House on the following web address:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. I am following my own advice and doing just that. Starting on February 24 I started to leave a daily comment on the White House website.

The  act of writing down my thoughts about a recent Trump action is very therapeutic for me. Once written down you can also send a copy to members of Congress and department heads within the Trump Administration. It seems like a small action to take, but your voice is important, and our elected officials need to hear from you.

Below are copies of the comments that I have sent to the White House over the past fourteen days.


February 24, 2024

Dear Mr. President,

My wife and I have spent a lot of money on reservations to visit the magnificent national parks this summer. I was extremely disturbed to learn that park rangers are being fired, and funding is being cut to these parks. They are a national treasure to generations of Americans and to the millions of foreign visitors each year.

National Parks are a crucial part of the regional economies of the states in which they preside. Cutting funds to these parks not only diminishes recreational experiences for our fellow Americans but it can be devastating to the folks that work and live in these areas. The jobs that are being eliminated are not high paying. They are being performed by dedicated professionals who love nature, love the parks, and love our country.

Cutting funding to American's parks is a big mistake because people of all political affiliations love and use them. Please take care of our cherished parks and keep America beautiful. From a lover of America's magnificent National Parks and a dedicated voter.

 
February 25, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing about your decision to fire several thousand IRS workers. This makes little sense in the middle of tax filing season. It is unsettling to the rest of the workers during this busy time of the year and hampers the agency from helping the millions of taxpayers who struggle to do the right thing by filing their tax returns.

This country runs annual budget deficits in the trillions of dollars and the national debt is becoming a national security crisis. It is estimated that over $100 billion in taxes goes uncollected each year, and firing IRS agents only encourages more tax cheating. IRS agents who investigate tax fraud bring in several times what it costs to employ them. We need to collect the tax revenue that is legally owed. What is your answer to this?  This country can't cut enough expenses to put a dent in the debt and deficits. Increasing revenues while holding down expenses is the answer. You are a businessman and certainly understand this.  Don't let politics get in the way of doing the right thing.

I am a Tax Aide volunteer and prepare dozens of returns each year for seniors and low-income families. I am on the front lines of the annual tax filing juggernaut and the folks need more help with income taxes, not less.

Please reconsider your decision to fire the IRS employees. Main street Americans need them more than do the millionaires and billionaires who will benefit most from their absence.

 
February 26, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Your approval ratings are now under water and the main culprits are Elon Musk and DOGE. You claim that you want to bring transparency to the government bureaucracy. But DOGE has become an unelected shadow government whose structure and members are unknown to the American public. 

Elon Musk has claimed that in a very short period of time he has found tens of billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse. If that is the case, make the evidence public. Cutting waste and saving taxpayer dollars is admirable, but it must be done with care. Otherwise, institutional integrity could be damaged, critical expertise could be lost, and national security could be undermined.

Don't let  your administration become the latest victim of DOGE's excesses. 

 
February 27, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I am deeply concerned that your administration is abandoning traditional allies in Western Europe, Canada and other NATO countries in favor of authoritarian regimes in Russian, China, and North Korea. Have you switched sides and upended our global alliances which have been in place since the end of World War II? By backing Russian in its war of aggression against Ukraine that appears to be the case.

You have called President Zelenski of Ukraine an unelected dictator and accused his country of starting the war against Russia. These statements come right out of the Russian playbook and has unsettled the American public and European allies. In the U.N. General Assembly this week the United States joined Russia, China and North Korea in voting against a Europe-backed Ukrainian resolution that calls out Russian aggression and demands an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Whose side are you own Mr. President? Have you been compromised by the Russians or are you just infatuated with murderous dictators?

I know that you want the war in Ukraine to end, everyone does. But not at the expense of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. If Ukraine is pressured into ceding land to Russia, then Putin wins, and the world will be less safe. Do you think Putin will be satisfied with the border regions of Ukraine and end his ambitions to rebuild the former Soviet Union? What will the U. S's position be if Putin sets his sights on a NATO member country such as Poland or one of the Baltic states?

If the war ends and Russia is allowed to keep any of its territorial gains in Ukraine, other authoritarian governments will be emboldened. What message will this send to the Chinese? Perhaps that the U.S. will not intervene if China chooses to invade Taiwan?

Don't be a puppet of Putin. Do the right thing for the people of Ukraine, for the future of Europe and our traditional strategic alliances.

 
February 28, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I was disturbed and discussed with the “Trump Gaza” video that you shared on your social media accounts. It was callous and diminishes the dignity of your office. Even though the video was made in jest, it shows no sensitivity to the extreme hardships and suffering experienced by the Palestinian people who live in Gaza. During the war with Israeli most of the 2 million inhabitants of Gaza were displaced, 92% of their buildings were destroyed, more than 60,000 were killed and many more injured. 

To forward such a video does nothing to move the peace process forward. It cheapens the image of the United States in the Middle East and emboldens Hamas and other extremist groups in the region. You couldn’t have asked for a better recruiting tool for the enemies of the United States. As the leader of the most powerful country in the world your actions have consequences. It was thoughtless, irresponsible and dangerous to forward the video. Thanks to you the United States is complicit in keeping the Middle East unstable for years to come.

Leadership without justice and compassion is tyranny.
 
 
March 1, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

The way you and your vice-president treated President Zelenskyy yesterday was a despicable and shameful treatment of an ally. This is not how diplomacy is supposed to work. You exposed yourself to all the world as a thinned-skinned bully. Very unpresidential.  Was this a setup to justify an inevitable deal with Putin to end the war in Ukraine with huge territorial gains for Russia?  All of Europe, and indeed the world, are now on notice that the United States is not to be trusted.

Kaja Kallas, Vice-President of the European Commission put it well, "Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It's up to us Europeans to take this challenge". Of course, this plays right into Russia's hands. One high ranking Russian official was quick to tweet out about Zelenskyy "The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @real DonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is gambling with WWIII".

The United States needs strong strategic alliances for the world to be safe. I’m afraid that you are beginning to dismantle the balance of power in the world, and I dread to think where it will lead.
 
 
March 2, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Under your direction Elon Musk and DOGE have eliminated most of the programs and staff from the USAID agency. This was supposedly done to end the waste, fraud, and abuse at this agency. What you don’t understand is that many of the programs carried out by this agency provide vital nutrition and food supplies to thousands of starving children, mostly in Africa. This is shortsighted on many levels, but the main outcome of these actions is that innocent children will die.

Mana Nutrition is a nonprofit company based in Georgia which produces a product called “Ready to Use Therapeutic Food” or “RUFT “. It is a nutrient-dense food specifically formulated to treat severe acute malnutrition and restore a child’s weight, strength, and overall health. It is made with mainly agricultural products produced in this country. This product is shelf-stable (no refrigeration needed), requires no preparation, and packaged in an easy-open, food safe pouch.  RUFT is distributed around the globe by USAID to alleviate a form of acute malnutrition known as “severe wasting”.

Now that DOGE has cancelled the USAID contract with Mana Nutrition about $10 million worth of life saving nutritional products is piling up in warehouses in Georgia. To add insult to injury the $14 million in reimbursements owed to Mana Nutrition is in doubt. As a result, the company may have to fire most of its employees and stop purchasing millions of dollars of agricultural products from American farmers.

At a recent prayer breakfast in Washington you proclaimed that you wanted to “bring back God” into American society and to root out anti-Christian bias. Helping to feed the poor is the most Christian thing your Administration could do. Elon Musk and JD Vance both have small children. Let them explain to the thousands of mothers whose babies will die how these actions by your Administration will “Make America Great Again”.

Do the Christian thing Mr. President and bring back the USAID nutrition programs for the world’s neediest.

 
March 3, 2025 

Dear Mr. President,

You are correct to assert that World War III could flow out of the war in Ukraine. But it won’t be Ukraine President Zelenskyy’s fault, it will lie squarely on the shoulders of Vladimir Putin. He started the war and could stop it tomorrow if he wanted. But with your Administration pressuring Zelenskyy to negotiate away more sovereign territory to Russia, Putin is content with continuing the war to increase territorial gains.

Your transparent support of Putin to the detriment of Ukraine is baffling and troubling. So is your Secretary of Defense’s order to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia. Russia has the most sophisticated cyber operations in the world and is working 24/7 to hack into U.S.  government agencies, energy and aviation infrastructure, financial institutions, think tanks, election systems, and our national security infrastructure. What does the U.S. get in return for this largess? Vague promises from Putin to end the war with terms that will embolden our enemies and weaken the Western Alliance. 

The more you kowtow to Putin, the further you strain relations with European allies, and the more unstable the world becomes. Please reconsider your incongruous decision to halt offensive cyber operations against Russia.
 
 
March 4, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

As a special government employee Elon Musk is prohibited from participating personally and substantially in a particular government matter that will affect his own financial interest, according to federal law.  Federal regulations also prohibit the government from awarding contracts to a government employee or company owned or substantially owned or controlled by one.

The Federal Aviation Administration has been a target of Elon Musk and DOGE, resulting in hundreds of layoffs and contract cuts. Musk’s Starlink company is now on the verge of securing a $2.4 billion contract with the FAA. This stinks of conflict of interest.

DOGE is looking into several government agencies that have contracts with one of Musk’s companies. It is also looking into federal agencies that have ongoing investigations of one of Musk’s companies. The White House Press Secretary said that Musk is responsible for identifying his own conflicts of interest and would “excuse himself” when his companies’ contracts overlap with his work with DOGE.

The American people don’t buy any of it!

 
March 5, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

During your speech to a joint session of Congress last night you stated many falsehoods and exaggerations. I want to focus my comments on your assertions about Social Security. You stated that the Social Security database lists millions of people over the age of 100, including 1.3 million people between 150 to 159 years old and more than 130,000 people over 160. You led the American people to believe that millions of dead people are collecting Social Security checks. This is false and you know it but continue to spread the lie anyway.

Just this week the new acting director of Social Security, Lee Dudek, acknowledged that there are many people in the database over the age of 100, but are not necessarily receiving benefits.  Several investigations into this matter have shown that the problem lies with antiquated software which inaccurately lists the age of people born in 1920 or earlier. The age of many of these people will default to an age of 150 or higher due to the faulty software. Additionally, as of September 2015, the Social Security Administration automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years.

The real concern is that your claim that millions of dead people are fraudulently collecting Social Security benefits dupes people into thinking that there’s an easy fix to solving Social Security’s financial problems, when there isn’t.  I am also concerned that you or DOGE will claim to have saved the Social Security system billions of dollars by eliminating these dead people from the benefit roles, when no savings were achieved. That’s the problem with DOGE looking at databases and algorithms without knowing the systems and regulations behind them. They make false assumptions that end up hurting some people and deceiving the rest of us.

 
March 6, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

I don’t understand your obsession with using tariffs as a blunt force instrument against other countries to bend to your will. It is a bullying tactic that is backfiring by hurting friends and foes alike. The financial markets are getting clobbered, hurting the retirements savings of millions of Americans, and undermining confidence in the system. All the post-election gains in the stock market have been erased, and for what?

You have antagonized Canada and Mexico, our closest neighbors and largest trading partners. These countries are now going to retaliate by increasing prices on food, energy, minerals, lumber and other goods used by average Americans. Recent national polls show that most Americans now believe that prices are going to continue to rise. Never forget that the main reason people voted for you in the first place is because they believed that you would lower consumer prices.

You seem to think that because the tariffs you implemented during your first term didn’t damage the economy, they won’t during your second term. But during your first term the economy was in a low inflationary period and could absorb price increases due to tariffs. Today the economy is in a very different place.  Prices remain stubbornly high, and inflation is once again pushing higher. As all reputable economists know, tariffs lead to higher prices. This could stop the economy in its tracks, and you will be to blame.

Tread lightly Mr. President, using tariffs as your big stick isn’t working. It is disruptive to the economy and financial markets and hurts the very people who elected you.

 
March 7, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Since the beginning of your 2nd term all U.S. aid to Ukraine has stopped, including final shipments of ammunition and equipment authorized and paid for during the Biden administration. Earlier this week the U.S. paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, cutting off the flow of vital information to soldiers on the battlefield. The U.S. has also cut off Ukraine’s access to crucial satellite imagery, hampering air defense systems.

All these moves were obviously an attempt to bring President Zelenskyy to heel and come back to the negotiating table. Unfortunately, these moves backfired and played right into Russia’s hands. Overnight the Russians launched a massive aerial attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure using cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones.  Dozens of civilians were injured or killed, and vital infrastructure that delivers heat, light and power to homes and factories was destroyed.

So much for helping a supposed ally.  Well done Mr. President.

 
March 8, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

With all due respect, is the White House running a shake-down racket? First you threaten our closest neighbors and allies with tariffs if they don’t comply with your wishes, now you threaten to withhold support from any NATO ally who doesn’t comply with your spending demands.

On Thursday you told reporters that you would reconsider the U.S.’s commitment to the 32-nation alliance which has been the cornerstone of peace in Europe and around the world for decades. In your own words you said, “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them”. This strikes at a core tenant of the NATO security alliance- that an attack on one member is an attack on all members.

Does everything have to be transactional with you? This is no way to build trust among friends and allies. It further alienates the U.S. from its traditional allies and pushes us further into the orbit of what is fast becoming the new axis of evil: North Korea, Russia, China and the United States! Let’s hope that this trend doesn’t continue.

 
March 9, 2025

Dear Mr. President,

Cutting the fat from federal programs is admirable, but making large cuts at the Social Security Administration may be a bridge too far for many Americans.  Over 73 million Americans receive benefit payments from Social Security and a disruption in this income would be devastating to them and the economy.

According to news reports approximately 7,000 employees will be eliminated from the Social Security Administration. Many senior staff members have already left, and divisions are being eliminated. This is all being done before your nominee to run the agency, Frank Bisignano, has been confirmed.
Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner, has admitted that outsiders are the ones making the decisions on staffing reductions.  People from DOGE who are unfamiliar with the policies, computer systems and other complexities of the agency are making the decisions. This is dangerous and shortsighted and will not end well.

The Social Security Administration is too important to be placed in such a precarious situation. Computer systems could be corrupted, and vital institutional knowledge lost. At a minimum put a halt on the staffing reductions until the new Social Security Commissioner has been confirmed by the Senate.
​
If you break Social Security, tens of millions of seniors will never let you forget.

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Thanks,
Armchair American