Freedoms at risk

President Trump is abandoning the rule of law, both internationally and domestically. This has drastic consequences for our freedoms and our prosperity.

Internationally, Trump is treating our tariff and trade treaties as if they do not exist, destroying confidence in the word of the United States and gravely damaging our own economy. By asserting his intention of taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal, he is threatening a world order barring neighbors from grabbing land of others and giving comfort to Russia’s war on Ukraine, China’s threat to Taiwan and Rwanda’s invasion of Congo. By refusing to fully back Ukraine and endorsing Russia’s claims to Ukrainian lands, he tells the world that they cannot rely on the U.S. to support their independence and freedom.

The domestic threats are even worse. He shipped people to El Salvador without due process of law. He closed the U.S. Institute of Peace, which is a separate, private 501(c) 3 institution without any legal action. He arbitrarily has cut off enormous amounts of spending mandated by congressional resolutions and signed into law. He has forced law firms to agree not to sue administration actions and to give money to groups he favors.

In violation of the emolument provision of the Constitution, he has set up a cryptocurrency that permits citizens, companies, foreigners and states to give him money. He has fired thousands of civil servants in ways that contravene laws established by Congress, signed by former presidents and found legal in courts. Finally, he has voided contracts both foreign and domestic without cause.

If any of these actions stand, his power is almost unlimited and our freedoms are deeply abridged.

Byron Miller

Warrenville