Dear editor,
(Republican President) Ronald Reagan: “We have jealously guarded the concept that ours is a government of laws, not of men.” (April 29, 1967 Speech by Governor Ronald Reagan before the University of Southern California Law Day Luncheon, Los Angeles).
"... an examination of his [George W. Bush] record over the five years he has been Governor shows he has been consistent in pressing a law-and-order agenda." (New York Times, Aug. 18, 1999, On The Record).
Trump: "My administration will always stand with the men and women of law enforcement." "We must always have law and order." "We will hire more police, increase penalties for assaults on law enforcement ..." "We will appoint prosecutors, judges. and justices who believe in enforcing the LAW ..." (Trump at Republican nominating convention, Aug. 27, 2020).
Trump: "We will return LAW and ORDER to our streets" (Trump at Republican nominating convention, July, 19, 2024).
People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump is a criminal case. On May 30 Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts, making him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. (HuffPost, May 30, 2024, others).
“Republicans have long proclaimed themselves the party of ‘law and order.’
“That political philosophy, however, doesn't seem to have extended to the historic criminal trial of Donald Trump that ended this week in a first-ever conviction of a former president — 34 guilty verdicts handed down by 12 ordinary Americans.
“Conservative allies of their party's presumptive presidential nominee didn't miss a beat jumping to his defense, or echoing his denouncement of the case as ‘rigged.’” (ABC News, June, 1, 2024, GOP's 'law and order')
Trump: “I’m innocent.”
Donald Trump is ramping up his rhetoric depicting his political rivals and critics as criminals, while dropping a long trail of suggestions that he favors outlawing political speech that he deems misleading or challenges his claims to power. (NBC News, Oct. 13, 2024, Totally Illegal)
“President Donald Trump … issued roughly 1,000 pardons and commuted sentences of 14 of his supporters in connection with attack on U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 …”Trump commuted sentences of individuals associated with Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. He then issued “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offences related to events that occurred at or near the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a category that included people who assaulted law enforcement officers.” (NBC News, Jan. 20, 2025, Trump Pardons)
The Trump administration has fired about 17 independent inspectors general at government agencies, a sweeping action to remove oversight of his new administration that some members of Congress are suggesting violated federal oversight laws. (FOX17, Jan. 25, 2025 Trump Fires)
Interim leaders at the Justice Department have spent the past week drawing up lists of people whose work at the Bureau has earned disfavor with Trump for a variety of reasons. Agents and analysts have been warned by FBI leadership that they may be asked to resign or face termination. (CNN, Jan. 31, 2025, FBI Agents)
-Henry Tideman, Oregon
