Three TH Trib Star Letters on Trump's Current Administration

 Letter: A grand new direction

Terre Haute Tribune Star. August 15, 2025

readers forum

With the election of President Trump and a Republican controlled Congress, things are certainly changing in the United States. It is a grand thing to see the new direction of this country.

The liberal deep state is being exposed for the antidemocratic force they are. The idea of foreign interference on behalf of Trump going back over a decade has been debunked. Instead, the liberal political machine appears to have made it up to influence elections. Scandals involving Hillary Clinton were not seriously investigated in 2016. In 2020 Covid scares and covering up of Biden scandals did influence the results of the presidential election. Leading up to the most recent election, the persecution via illegal prosecution reared its ugly head. Then, in 2024 when it became evident that President Biden was not up to another term, they installed Harris as a new candidate that didn’t receive a single primary vote.

In terms of immigration, the government has made great strides in the correct direction. The issue has never been that the citizenry is against immigration. As has become clear, the citizens and legal immigrants to this nation are against illegal immigration. Illegal is illegal. Anyone making the argument that without illegal immigration this nation will have no one to work in the service industry has their priorities skewed. As the law requires, dangerous illegal immigrants are being sent out of the country, violent crime rates are down by double digits and the anti-democratic liberal plan boosting their voting bloc through illegal immigration is collapsing.

The economy is doing well. Domestically, the recent tax bill benefits the whole country. Government spending needs to be curtailed further. However, the country’s new tariff policies are succeeding and generating additional revenue. Free trade is the best trade. However, when other countries have tariffs and trade barriers against U.S. goods, foreign countries are treating the U.S. unfairly. Weekly there are new, fair trade deals being announced with countries around the world. Domestically, the recent tax bill aids all Americans.

The United States is returning to a position of respect in the international community. Here at home, our military has been refocused on the mission of combat. Internationally, the president has strengthened NATO. While not all his efforts to bring peace to troubled regions have, as of yet, been successful, several have.

We have seen a great turnaround for the better in this nation in less than a year. The country can look forward to much more progress for good over the next few years as well.

 Dwayne Owens

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Reader's Forum, TH Trib Star,  Sept. 10, 2025

Support needed for opinion

Since this page in the paper is the Opinion page, I cannot quarrel with the publication of Dwayne Owens’ letter, as it contains nothing but his opinions, none of which he supports in the letter.

He provides no examples, no facts, no history, no incidents or occurrences to support any opinion that he states.

Here are questions, specifically asking for how he supports his printed statements.

These are all statements taken from the letter.

How has the liberal deep state become exposed as an antidemocratic state?

How has the idea of foreign interference on behalf of Trump been debunked? And how did the liberal political machine make it up?

What is your proof that scandals involving Hillary Clinton were not seriously investigated in 2016?

Could you be specific in your allegation that Covid scares influenced the 2020 election? And what Biden scandals were being covered up at the time? 

Could you please explain what this sentence means: Leading up to the most recent election, the persecution via legal prosecution reared its ugly head.

How has it become clear that the citizens and legal immigrants to this nation are against illegal immigration? It appears from all the protests that they do not want to lose our immigrants, illegal or not, especially in the inhumane, random, chaotic, heavy-handed, cruel and brutal way in which they are being removed.

And just how are the priorities screwed of those who think that without illegal immigration we will have no one to work in the service industry?

Do you have any statistics to show that violent crime rates are down by double digits?

What proof do you have that the economy is doing well?

How does the recent tax bill benefit this whole country?

Please explain how other countries are treating the U.S. unfairly.

How can you show us that the U.S. is returning to a position of respect in the international community?  

What do you mean when you claim that our military here at home is refocused on the mission of combat?

— Judy Dukes

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Reader's Forum, TH Trib Star,  Sept. 10, 2025

Trump's "Grand Thing" -- Not if you're paying attention

 

Terre Haute Tribune Star, September 10, 2025

“It is a grand thing,” a local Trump supporter writes [Terre Haute Tribune Star, Reader’s Forum, August 15, 2025], “to see the new direction of this country.”

We should put aside the letter’s obligatory sour and stale opening. It’s made up of the standard stuff from true believers who turn resentment into verbal revenge, smugly attacking the conspiracy inspired “deep state” and the Trumpian bluster about Hillary, Joe and Kamala all being a part of gauzy scandals. Just the usual fact void screed you can hear from Fox commentators most nights.

But then there is the uncooked and indigestible meat of this acolyte’s letter.

For starters, we find it peculiar to hear about a “new direction” from this Trump admirer. After all, MAGA chants have a central hope in seeing a return to a “Great Again” past. (An impossible fantasy always to be specified at a later date.) But this “It’s a grand thing” sketch does take a crack, make that a faint tap, at listing some vague blurbs uncritically praising 47’s clumsy blitzkrieg of actions.

So we read of “great strides” taken on immigration, of an economy “doing well,” tax benefits coming our way, tariffs filling the nation’s coffers, respect for America in the international community and “Here at home, our military has been refocused on the mission of combat.”

And all this supposedly constitutes a “great turnaround for the better in this nation in less than a year.” Some missing elements and the costs of this “great turnaround,” however, can make a person very dizzy. Or some, those sensitive to truth and upholding democratic values, even sick.

Immigrants have long been Trump’s target of choice. And yes, some Americans applaud his sending of the innocent — snatched at the school door, at work, on the steps of our courts or near churches or victims of administrative mistakes — off to wretched foreign prisons. All without a nod toward due process. Can’t you hear Trump? “These prisons are a great deal. I always make the best deals. The country knows only I can make such great deals.”

The economy? It zooms along, virtually for most, onward and upward for the rich and well placed. We should remember Trump’s 2024’s gas and groceries promises. And if the hard facts aren’t showing how well you are doing, just wait a minute. Trump is getting a new and better statistician into the Department of Labor to fix any vexing basic math results he doesn’t like.

Taxes and tariffs? These hardly belong in the “great strides” category. Though we can rest assured the super-rich are already spending their ever ballooning tax breaks. Tariffs? Nothing here gives any indication, to the relief of most economists, of being a done deal. With Trump it’s been an up and down, an on and off game. But be certain China will be handled with kid gloves and Switzerland’s Toblerone will be priced beyond my reach but not those of Elon Musk’s and Jeff Bezos’s.

International respect? Really!?! Can you find many nation’s around the world that respect the United States under Trump’s heavy hand and light intellect other than those headed by some species of authoritarianism? I didn’t think so. Respect is earned by actions of mutual agreement and benefits, not from practicing the dark side of gangsta rap, intimidation and fear.

On our military, it was doing its best parading by executive order on T’s birthday in the streets of D.C. two months ago. Now it’s ordered to throw the elderly, the sick, the unlucky homeless out of whatever shade they can find in our nation’s sweltering capital. I guess you can call this a military “refocus.”

You must admit this “grand thing” Trump supporter has the ugly game plan of his overlord down perfectly. Never show weakness. Never apologize. Never explain. Attack, never defend. Engender loyalty through intimidation.

Simple and direct, right? But are these the qualities of mind and spirit that can take us to a place where we can begin to solve our nation’s complex challenges?

— Gary Daily