To the editor:

The second Trump Administration is working out the way that I expected. The president and his subordinates have launched a blizzard of initiatives either designed to implement the priorities of the extreme right-wing Project 2025 or to seek revenge against those perceived as Trump’s enemies.

A call has gone out to billionaires to help set up an American oligarchy from which they can profit for years. The unfortunate scapegoats of choice are the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants and liberals. Democrats and DEI are to be blamed for everything, including a plane crash. The tone of all statements emanating from the White House and elsewhere in the administration is self-righteous and nasty. As we watch, damage is being done to numerous federal institutions crucial to what many of us have understood to be bulwarks of life in these United States. And now the promised tariff wars have been started by a president who either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care what that might do to our economy.

I would love to say that we are better than this, but that isn’t true. We listened to what Trump said he would do, and we elected him and gave him slim margins in both the House and Senate. The Republicans seem determined to back most of Trump’s initiatives and to approve some truly horrifying Cabinet choices. I have lived during 13 previous administrations and have never been more terrified about the future of our country.

Paul Laird,

Lawrence