Letters to the Editor: As COVID-19 rages, Trump rushes to protect ... statues?

To the editor: President Trump, always looking for praise and the chance to present himself as a hero, and standing under the grand backdrop of Mt. Rushmore, is taking a stand to defend Confederate monuments.

He acts as if this is what our country needs amid a worsening deadly pandemic and a nationwide demand that we address systemic racial and economic inequality in the United States.

Where is his leadership to create a coordinated, effective response to the pandemic? Where is his call to action to all Americans to join together to confront the issue of inequality? Where is his interest in anything other than his own power and glory and rallying his base in the hopes of being reelected?

Once again, our president has his eye on the wrong ball.

Joanna Ryder, Hermosa Beach

..

To the editor: Heads blew up in the Trump universe when the president, in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore, accused the left of engaging in a “cultural revolution ... designed to overthrow the American Revolution.”

Trump exposed a secret cabal of progressive Democrats, Black Lives Matter activists and “deep state” operatives who are working to return the United States to British rule. That explains why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are hiding out in Los Angeles — they are waiting to assume their roles as viceroy and vicereine of the new United Colonies of America.

Given some of the other bizarre statements emanating from the White House, this almost seems like a good idea.

Steve Martin, West Hollywood

..

To the editor: The headline, “At Mt. Rushmore, Trump uses Fourth of July celebration to stoke a culture war,” cleary betrays your political animus, though ironically one day later the president delivered a July 4 address from the White House absent his usual verbal “fireworks.”

The Mt. Rushmore speech was the president’s response to a cultural war waged by the far left, which has been engaged in the destruction of historical statues across the United States, setting its sights even on Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

The article not only accused Trump of “stoking a cultural war,” but also went so far as to accuse the president of “employing racist rhetoric or dog whistles,” despite Trump having mentioned in his speech the important contributions of African American figures in our history.

Richard Friedman, Culver City