Readers Write: More GOP leaders question Trump’s fitness

The Island Now

Last week, while the media was focused on the kerfuffle over Donald Trump’s condolence calls to the families of military men and women killed in service to our country, Republicans continued their criticism of the occupant of the Oval Office.

 In sharp contrast with Mr. Trump’s efforts to raise barriers to trade and immigrants, his fanning the fires of bigotry and racism and his promotion of “America First” nationalism and isolationism, former President George W. Bush defended immigration and free trade, denounced nationalism and bigotry, and criticized the “casual cruelty” of our current public discourse.

 Speaking at a conference to promote democracy, Mr. Bush said, “we’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America.”

 “We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism.  We’ve seen the return of isolationist sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places.”

 In a similar vein, earlier in the week, Sen. John McCain said, “the international order we helped build from the ashes of world war, and that we defend to this day, has liberated more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history.”

 Without calling out Mr. Trump by name, he labelled as “unpatriotic” those who would “abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe,” in favor of “some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.”

 Also, Peggy Noonan, an extremely conservative columnist, picked up on the criticism voiced by Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican and Foreign Relations Committee chairman, and others, which I mentioned last week.

 Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Noonan noted that Gabe Sherman of Vanity Fair had reported that “he’d spoken to a half-dozen prominent Republicans and Trump associates, who all describe ‘a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods.’”

 Ms. Noonan went on to write that, “when a theme like this keeps coming up, something’s going on.  A lot of people appear to be questioning in a new way, or at least talking about, the president’s judgment, maturity and emotional solidity.”

 She concluded, “half the country does not see what the journalists, establishment figures and elites of Washington see.  But they do see it, and they believe they’re seeing clearly.  It’s a little scary.”

 With all this criticism coming from Mr. Trump’s own party, it’s fair to ask when will Republicans pull the plug on our nation’s nightmare?  When will Republicans put our country before their party?

 When will the members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet put their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States ahead of their unctuous pledge of loyalty to Mr. Trump and invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office?

 

Jay N. Feldman

Port Washington

 

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