Workers and supporters salute to departing scientific leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the CDC headquarters on Aug. 28 in Atlanta.
TACO and foreign policy
Remind me if this sounds familiar.
1) In 2020, Trump negotiated a withdrawal from Afghanistan without the Afghan government's input and with the Taliban's "guarantees." All the faults of the plan crashed in Joe Biden's administration. Afghan supporters of the U.S. get nothing.
2) The 2025 Gaza Plan calls for the occupation of Gaza with an international force. Meanwhile, Zionist settlers attack and kill Palestinians and have no repercussions for such violence. The Palestinians either die or get nothing.
3) Without fully advising Ukraine, in 2025 Donald Trump demands the Ukraine basically recognize Russia's military takeover of most of the land it invaded in the three-and-a-half-year war and a weakened Ukraine, with US "guarantees" of protection in the future. In return, Russia is reinstated into the global economy. The Ukrainians literally get nothing.
Donald Trump seems to support those who fight against the U.S. long-time foreign policy objectives. Trump Always Chickens Out (TACO) describes Trump's foreign policy as well as his tariff policy.
Matt Somers
Midtown
Restore our CDC
I was a registered nurse/clinical nurse specialist in trauma intensive care for 30 years. Approximately 300,000 injury deaths occur yearly in the U.S., and 75-80% of these are preventable. Injury is the top cause of death for Americans aged 1-44. Firearm injury is the No. 1 cause of death for children and pregnant women.
The Trump administration gutted the CDC (formally the Centers for Disease Control and Injury Prevention). One-third of injury prevention employees were fired, and entire programs for violence prevention and opioid overdose prevention were closed. Instead, this administration is exploding boats in the Caribbean. This is not a sane, affordable, or even legal solution to the opioid crisis.
Our country can’t be “great again” while hundreds of thousands die from firearms, car wrecks, and opioid overdoses. Exploding boats as if it’s all a big video game keeps no one safe. We need the CDC fully staffed, funded, and working to keep us safe, from both infectious disease and injury.
Teresa Goodell
Oro Valley
'Peace in our time'
Apparently, Mr. Trump has made a deal with Russian Dictator Putin about the Ukraine, conveniently not bothering to involve the Ukrainians (Star, Nov. 21). I wonder what he will entitle his announcement when he formally makes it: perhaps "Peace in our time"? Unfortunately, neither Mr. Trump nor his advisors are apparently aware of the terrible lessons of our recent history on the consequences of appeasing tyrants and dictators. Mr. Trump is evidently blind to this: He has been overt in his admiration of Putin, calling his brutal invasion of the Ukraine, which has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, "genius." George Will (that raging liberal) in his column in the Star on Oct. 15 quotes extensively from a European source who predicts uncannily what Putin's strategy is and what he likely will do. If he wins, we and our children will pay for it in blood. Can we so easily ignore the lessons of WWII?
Abraham R. Byrd III
North side
Derangement?
No recent letter seems as off the rails as that of Jay Elliott's on Nov. 21. Was his tin foil hat too tight when he wrote it? Biden "handed the Trump administration 9% inflation?" Ludicrous. Inflation at the end of 2024 was at 2.9%, currently above 3% under Trump. Biden handed Trump an improving economy; Trump's economy is making life harder for average families. Foreign affairs? Trump is viewed as a buffoon on the world stage and has decimated long-standing relationships with allies. What's "obvious" about Trump is his desire to increase his own wealth and that of others in the uber wealthy category. "Billionaires don't need more money" but they still crave it, as Trump's non-stop grifting clearly indicates. Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid? - merely collateral damage from tax cuts in the Big Ugly Bill benefiting the wealthy. Lastly, Trump Derangement Syndrome is not "medically recognized;" if it were, it would apply to Trump's delusional followers.
S. Ross Emmanuel
Southeast side
Ciscomani has two faces
The Nov. 21 article about U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani seemed to portray him as a struggling champion for his constituents. She said he “struggled publicly,” and “pushed back” on the Trump agenda to remove healthcare tax credits for working people. But, she admits, Ciscomani "generally has complied" and "wound up voting for" bills that do the administration’s dirty work. The article also quoted Ciscomani’s press flack saying he “does not plan to sign” a petition to even force a vote to avoid massive health insurance cost increases. Ciscomani puts one face out in public but votes a straight MAGA line, thereby putting his constituents’ health and welfare at risk.
Gail Kamaras
East side
Let's unleash Putin on Europe
Trump’s proposed sweetheart peace deal with Russia is beyond embarrassing.
Trump clearly favors totalitarian Russia rather than democratic Europe. His 28-point peace plan tilts heavily in favor of Putin’s interests and treats Europe like its security interests don’t exist.
No wonder Europe has joined Zelenskyy in condemning the proposed plan.
How many times does Trump have to express his admiration for authoritarian rulers in Turkey, Hungary, Russia, and China or his desire to see Democrat Congressional military vets in jail or dead before this country wakes up?
For any American who got past 5th grade, all this is a clear signal that our President loves personal power more than representative government, lethality more than righteousness, and cruel, godless dictators more than humanitarian servant leaders.
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Integration
My father was a racist. I was raised on the strung-together pejorative words for every culture in the world. Years ago, my mom, as a high school teacher, had an international student at their home for the summer. One year it was a student, Yuko, from Japan. Well, my father fell in love with her, figuratively. My parents visited her family in Japan. She visited my parents again with her new husband. Their first child was born on my father’s birthday. So, integration does work. One needs to meet others and experience another’s culture. This brings me to today’s visit with Mamdani and Trump. Imagine two adversaries meeting and liking each other. Maybe, inclusion with diversity works. Imagine that. Vamos a ver.
Margaret Gordon Magruder
Downtown
Derangement diagnosis
I believe Mr. Elliott, author of the “Adelita Grijalva letter,” is suffering from “Fox News Derangement Syndrome,” which results in extreme opinions with no factual basis.
Trump did not reduce the inflation rate from 9% to 2.4% in ten months. The rate was 3.4% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024. For 2025, the inflation rate is 3.0% and climbing.
No one has ever even implied that half our citizens are billionaires; only that the 800+ billionaires hold 3.8% of the US wealth while the bottom 50% of Americans own 2.5%. Not satisfied, they keep fighting for more money and power, and Trump rewards them with lower tax rates.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is not found in the Manual of Mental Disorders. However, “psychosis” is: “a collection of symptoms that show a loss of contact with reality, including delusions and hallucinations."
Bruce Hilpert
North side
Fact check needed
Jay A. Elliott should check facts on Biden’s “utter failure” with simple online Googling. Trump was not handed 9% inflation and has not reduced it to 2.4%. Nov 2024 inflation 2.7% (3% in January 2025) and now estimated at 4.5%. Inflation has increased under Trump from higher medical & energy costs, and tariffs — things either Trump neglected or directly imposed. Yes, inflation was 9.1% under Biden in June 2022 — post-COVID results of high energy and food prices, supply chain issues and high consumer demand. Don’t recall complaints regarding billionaire numbers, but under Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts 4% gain for an upper-income family and 4% loss for the lowest-income. It cuts health care and food assistance and gives big businesses tax cuts and tax reductions for investments. CBO predicts $3.4 trillion to the national deficit over the next 10 years. Since no detail on border or foreign affairs, I will stop here. You Trumpers should offer facts, not distortions, for discussion.
David Chojnacky
Foothills
