Last week, Ed Surgan completely misconstrued my Letter to the Editor concerning Donald Trump [“In Good Hands,” Letters, July 11]. I said nothing about the optics of Trump posing with the world’s worst dictators; rather, I talked about what Trump has said and what he has done, and what he failed to do, as our president.
A few specifics …
Trump joked with dictator Vladimir Putin about doing away with journalists, and Trump continues to fail to call out Putin for interfering in our 2016 elections. Our FBI and our CIA have unequivocally stated that Russia interfered with our 2016 elections … yet, Trump sides with Putin rather than our country’s intelligence agencies.
Can you imagine what the Republicans would say if Barack Obama or another Democrat cozied up to Putin in this fashion, and if they denigrated our FBI and CIA? There would be cries of treason, cowardice, malfeasance and worse.
Then there is Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, who was directly involved in the brutal killing of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump has not condemned the criminal actions of MBS, nor has he taken any action to repudiate the Saudis for this heinous crime—murder and dismemberment! Trump says it looks bad, but, I am the President and the Saudis are our allies … Really? Their citizens were complicit in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, killing thousands of innocent civilians, Americans and citizens from across the globe.
Oh, and by the way, Jared Kushner is a big pal of MBS … who has said that he has Jared in his pocket.
And Trump belittles England, France, Canada, Germany, Japan and so many of our other NATO allies since World War II. Instead, he overtly praises the worst dictators currently in power … rather than backing our longstanding allies that have kept the peace for all these many years.
Perhaps Mr. Surgan is captivated by the right-wing media machine, which twists the truth at every turn, rather than reading and watching the lies and vitriol that are spewed out by Trump every single day via tweet and in broad daylight in front of the cameras.
Dick SheehanWesthampton Beach
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