Opinion: Letters defending Trump almost don’t exist anymore

Since we published a full page of letters from supporters of Donald Trump and other conservatives after the Nov. 3 election, several readers have asked what people who voted for the president would say now, after nearly two months of his constant conspiracy theorizing, calls to overturn the election, seeming indifference to pandemic victims and questionable pardons.

The answers is, as far as I can tell, not much, or at least a lot less than before. Sure, we still receive submissions that repeat the president’s false election conspiracies, but those aren’t seriously considered for publication for the same reason letters supporting flat-eartherism aren’t seriously considered for publication. After the election, letters defending the president’s actions and policy positions have diminished to a trickle; on specific issues like his recent pardons, they are all but nonexistent.

There is still the occassional letter from a pro-Trump reader expressing animus toward Democrats, but when it comes to defending him on specific matters after his election loss, Trump appears to be on his own.

Roy Friedland of Los Angeles wonders what Trump supporters think now:

It seems to me that now is the right time to print yet another round of letters from the Trump crowd, because I can’t possibly be alone in wondering how they feel about their leader now.

After several weeks of further revealing his true self — by undermining our democracy and pardoning a football team’s worth of crooks and liars — many questions come to mind: Is Trump still their law-and-order guy? Do they still think the virus is a hoax? Are they still drinking the Kool-Aid? Or has the Big Gulp finally — finally! — been emptied?

And where is Scott Jennings? Are there any evangelicals still brave enough to defend and rationalize this president’s immoral and corrupt behavior? I really want to know.

Charles Blankson of Fontana believes Trump is punishing the whole country:

In his final days as president, Trump is sticking it to all Americans, including the 74 million people who voted for him.

If he really had been genuine about the COVID-19 relief bill not including enough in relief money for hard-working Americans who are suffering because of the pandemic, all he had to do was to pick up the phone and instruct his minions in Congress to make changes.

He didn’t care then, and he doesn’t care now. All he is doing is punishing Americans for rejecting him and denying him a second term.

Frances Terrell Lippman of Sherman Oaks accuses Trump of upending justice:

Whoever uttered those famous words “crime doesn’t pay” obviously never knew Donald Trump. His list of crooked pardoned pals reads like a who’s who of Larceny Inc.

Trump’s abuse of the pardon power is a terrible stain on our democracy and a mockery of our justice system. As the president shows, it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know.