To the editor: Here’s the bottom line: President Trump knows his popularity is in rapid decline. His arguably illegal and disastrous war on Iran, his damaging tariff policies and his tax cuts to billionaires have all conspired to increase prices on ordinary citizens. He campaigned on “lowering prices on Day One” and “no foreign wars,” yet he’s done exactly the opposite.
Faced with historically low poll numbers, Trump is falling back on his familiar pattern of trying to rig the system to his benefit in advance of the midterm elections. And this time, he’s demonstrated a very public willingness to make the American people suffer in order to do it.
Congress drafted and approved a comprehensive, widely popular and bipartisan bill that would give U.S. citizens much-needed relief with respect to homeownership. But at the 11th hour, Trump decided to use the bill as a way to extort lawmakers into passing his blatant voter suppression bill (“Trump refuses to sign landmark housing bill, demanding Congress pass voter ID law,” June 24). He said he wouldn’t sign the homeownership relief bill without Congress first approving his laughably named SAVE America Act.
It’s worth mentioning that Trump’s announcement of his intentions included a racial slur involving Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and a lie that his “real poll numbers are the highest they have ever been.”
The fact that Trump is so willing to put his own interests above those of the American people is shocking. And even after almost a decade of seeing his blatant corruption and his anti-democratic efforts while in office, he never ceases to amaze.
Matthew Singerman, Newbury Park
