Letter to the editor: A difficult choice

OPINION:

Is empathizing with the manifestly unjust treatment of former President Donald Trump and his supporters enough to justify casting a vote for Mr. Trump in November?

Russia, two impeachments and the COVID-19 pandemic shackled the Trump presidency. The hyperbolized Jan. 6 protests and plethora of subsequent court cases have haunted the years since Mr. Trump left office. Looking at his presidency through the lens of these obstacles, can we discern any accomplishments beneficial to the American people?

Inarguably, Mr. Trump’s most vociferous campaign promise was to build a “big, beautiful border wall.” Beyond its dulcet alliteration, was this commitment carried to fruition? This question is rather rhetorically asked, as $250 million in steel panels lie recumbent in the southwestern desert, getting a rusty tan.

What else? There was that much-vaunted 2017 tax legislation that overhauled the tax code. But has the average minimum-wage worker reaped any of the promised benefits, such as that “inevitable” $4,000 annual raise that was to cascade down to him as a result of corporate gains?

In 2020, surrounded by his warmongering advisers — all scaled critters from the swamp he vowed to cast out — Mr. Trump appeared on national TV to crow about the assassination of an Iranian of whom the majority of Americans had never heard. Qasem Soleimani was the most popular political figure in Iran who, in violation of both domestic and international law, was eliminated by a drone strike on Mr. Trump’s order. We were told this was in America’s national security interest; it thwarted an imminent attack on U.S. assets.

However, this is at odds with the proposition that Soleimani was actually in Iraq to meet with its prime minister to discuss a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a conciliation that, perhaps, the U.S. opposed.

Given this, does Mr. Trump really offer a contrast to the weapons-of-mass-destruction fabulists who preceded him? But who will be my other presidential choice, Genocide Joe?

So this is democracy.

SCOTT R. HAMMOND

Boston