I am 82 years old and an independent voter. I have seen and lived under many presidents, some excellent and some that did not live up to America’s ideals. I can state quite unequivocally that Donald Trump is the most corrupt and inept president that I have ever encountered. I say corrupt because witness his creation of a crypto meme coin that allows anyone in the world, who curries Trump’s favor, to purchase his meme coins (essentially bribes) whose name Trump knows but remains unknown to the rest of us. Or consider Trump’s recent Truth Social message: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT” right before he paused his tariffs. Marjorie Taylor Greene made a killing and Trump bragged about how his billionaire friends made millions. Or take these ruinous tariffs where exemptions can be purchased with a “donation” to his inaugural fund. Just ask Tim Cooke of Apple who gave a million and received an exemption for iPhones.

And speaking of tariffs it looks like Trump has already lost that war. Those exemptions make Trump’s position look weak and poorly thought out. No surprise there. China is not going to give in; They were hurt by tariffs in Trump’s first term, so they planned and built ahead for this one. For instance, they decided to buy soybeans from Brazil and built the infrastructure in that country to support shipping to China. Now Trump has proposed bailing out our farmers by billing the taxpayers $25 billion for his mistake.

Conor M. Power

Montague