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One hopes AG’s suits
protect our civil rights
Re: “State AG keeps up Trump battle” (Page A1, July 20).
Attorney General Rob Bonta has been suing the Trump administration on many fronts. As fast as President Donald Trump is usurping the state’s rights and funding, he has been responding quickly with legal suits.
California has no racial or ethnic majority due to its diversity. Latinos (40%), White (34%), Asian (16%) and Black (6%). The GDP for 2025 is projected to be $4.1 trillion, fourth in the world. Over half of all people under 24 years old are Latinos and half of all people over 65 years old are White.
The tariffs will affect the economy. The Medicaid cuts will affect one in three Californians and will strain the state’s budget.
Trump’s birthright citizenship order is aimed at Latinos and other minorities. Let us hope that the litigation with 18 other states preserves the 14th Amendment.
Mohan Raj
San Jose
Care, compassion are
lacking in government
I am deeply concerned for the future of this country. If I were to reference an article in the Mercury News that this letter relates to, I’d have to reference whole sections of the paper since January.
Every day seems to bring more and more egregious news about what our president is up to. Now he’s using the power of his office to threaten sports teams to create a smokescreen to cover up his lies about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. What country are we living in? Where are the adults who were elected to run this country? President Trump’s policies are weakening our institutions, costing us huge amounts of money and destroying the trust of the public in science, medicine and education. When is this madness going to end?
Yes, there are things in our federal government that need to be pruned, but let’s do it with care and compassion. Please.
Rosalie Arntzen
Sunnyvale
Americans are living
under a pall of fear
It is a horrible thing to live in fear. When I was younger, I felt sadness for the people who lived in fear, but they were elsewhere — in World War II Germany, in the Middle East, in Africa. Fear was there.
Now, fear is here. Parents fear losing access to medical care and becoming food insecure. Children fear losing their parents to ICE raids. The media has fear of retribution from government authorities for stories that are critical of the current administration. Universities fear the loss of funding for research if they do not bow to this administration’s demands regarding DEI programs and international students.
We all fear the loss of respect for the rule of law, a mainstay in our country for so long. And we fear the direction of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court, becoming his enabler.
When will we regain our security that being American has always afforded us?
Lorraine D’Ambruoso
San Jose
Trump’s grip on power
feels overwhelming
Every dictator knows that the key to consolidating power is to control the flow of information. To that end, Donald Trump is using intimidation, lawsuits and the withholding of funds to attack universities, public education, print media, public broadcasting, major law firms and peaceful demonstrations.
If getting all these entities in tow is not scary enough, Trump has kneecapped every governmental agency that might otherwise thwart his wishes by replacing their leadership with his sycophants.
On a daily basis, a number of popular right-wing “news” shows shout out his point of view, while at night he hammers the airwaves with his opinions, however deluded they might be, on his media platform, Truth Social. The Trump drumbeat has been constant and loud.
For those who oppose him, there is a feeling of frustration, maybe even impotence. Given his stranglehold on power, how exactly are we going to save this democracy?
Bob Parker
San Jose
Congress’s obedience
fuels Trump’s reign
The only reason President Trump has the superpower to do whatever he wants is that the Republican majority in Congress is complacent and compliant, not brave enough to use the kryptonite they hold in their hands.
They are terrified of retaliation, but the power behind his retribution only exists in the minds of congressional members who are not willing to say, “Enough.”
David Wilkins
San Jose
