To the editor:
Mr. Trump is quickly remaking our presidency. Demonstrating his disregard for the law, he pardoned the January 6 rioters whom he incited to attack Congress. By freeing them, he sanctions the use of force to achieve political goals, providing protection to those who act in his name. He also validates a culture of political violence taking hold in our country. The armed invasion of Michigan’s capital in 2020, death threats to election workers, and the death threats causing the cancellation of a recent Cadillac city council meeting are some examples. He also moved quickly to monetize the presidency. He recently launched $TRUMP, a cryptocurency memecoin. These tokens have no financial purpose, except to cash in on Trump’s name. 80% of these tokens are owned by Trump and his team and have a current market value of 7 billion dollars. The Trump team collected 58 million dollars in initial trading fees. Now, to curry Trump’s favor, one can purchase enough $TRUMP to show you boosted his wealth. Crytocurrency is annonymous, so anyone buying favors can’t be traced. And, to prevent independent scrutiny of his actions, Mr. Trump has fired 17 Inspectors General, top level government watchdogs, to be replaced with loyalists. So Mr. Trump, our president, has established that those who back him with violent actions are protected and those who seek his favor have an untraceable pipeline for collecting graft. These actions deliberately corrupt two fundamental underpinnings of democracy: rule of law and fiscal integrity.
James Schwantes Cedar
