Last week, the president banned from the White House reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, with a threat of others joining them; he mentioned The New York Times, too. Donald Trump says they report fake news.
News such as gas prices going sky high as a result of the Iran war nobody wanted and Congress never authorized. (Chicagoans, have you noticed a gallon of regular is over five bucks?) Such as cattle ranchers being pillaged financially due to Trump allowing imported beef into the U.S. Such as farmers, including those in our state, having to pay for wildly outrageous fertilizer to bring their crops to market, again stemming from a war that Trump started that he cannot now control and that he cannot end. Such as the price of groceries continuing to climb. Such as unlawful tariffs. And such as wanting to demolish the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a memorial to John F. Kennedy, our 35th president, unless Trump’s name is back on it. That’s despite only Congress having the statutory authority to add or change the name of the building and a federal court already ordering his name removed after it was attached.
All this isn’t fake news. Such reporting is accurate, based on facts and evidence, with opinions guaranteed by the First Amendment as part of the mix, all of which merely shows Trump’s incompetence and lunacy from a lay perspective. His poll numbers are dropping like a dead weight in water, and he does not give a hoot about Americans he was supposed to represent when elected in 2024, despite the promises he made on the campaign trail.
Let me bring this home for those who read the Tribune. What if Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor, did not like what the paper reported about him? Would we tolerate him not allowing its reporters into City Hall? Of course not, because its stories are factually based. And its opinion page is founded on the First Amendment.
Banning credible press outlets such as CNN, MS NOW and Politico from our people’s house, also known as the White House, is unlawful and unconstitutional and leads to the destruction of our democracy.
We need to use every legal means the justice system has to offer us Americans to stop Trump!
— Miles J. Zaremski, Highland Park
Outlets’ argument baseless
CNN and their confederate outlets complain in a lawsuit filed against President Donald Trump’s administration that they are unable to do their jobs having been booted off the White House grounds.
These journalists can do their jobs elsewhere, such as the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, or in their network studios or newsroom.
These outlets’ First Amendment rights to broadcast slanted biases against Trump have not been adversely affected nor restrained, as these organizations are free to continue to report their anti-Trump stories without interference from the government whatsoever.
Their First Amendment argument is baseless.
— Earl Beal, Terre Haute, Indiana
Board’s misplaced focus
Regarding the editorial “Michigan’s El-Sayed failing to remove Piker deadweight from Senate campaign” (Sept. 18): The amount of ink that the Tribune Editorial Board devotes to stoking fears about Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, “liberal firebrand” Abdul El-Sayed, is truly reprehensible when the board continues to seldom speak a peep about a sitting U.S. president’s daily transgressions and the stupefying silence of “traditional” Republicans that it typically champions, such as U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood of Illinois’ 16th District.
While congressional Republicans responsible for not curbing the destruction of our democracy sit idly by as their negative campaign ads, fueled by donors benefiting from massive tax cuts, attempt to manufacture anger against Democratic opponents, the backlog grows daily of issues that deserve commentary. The latest: banning certain reporters from the White House because President Donald Trump doesn’t like their organizations’ coverage. Jack Nicholson’s line “You can’t handle the truth” from “A Few Good Men” comes to mind.
This is a president whose policies the GOP members of Congress tacitly endorse with their silence: Deny climate change, weaken environmental protections, cancel wind farm projects that would supply much needed electricity, arrest asylum-seekers at judicial hearings, deport immigrants with no criminal history to dangerous countries, tolerate a level of grift and self-dealing unprecedented in American history, and look the other way at the unbridled incompetence and deteriorating track record of Cabinet members such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth.
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Hegseth is in charge of what the president characterizes as a “small potatoes” Iran conflict that has seriously depleted not only our military arsenal but also family savings at the gas pump.
The national debt, with the hollowed-out Republican Party firmly in charge, has been allowed to snowball, threatening Social Security and Medicare, plus the ability to fund worthwhile programs benefiting all Americans, from transportation infrastructure to medical research. Current unchecked looting will forever handcuff future generations if not reversed with fair-share taxes coupled with strategic spending cuts over lobbyists’ objections.
To echo one of Trump’s own attacks on an unqualified appointee, the lawmakers responsible over the last two years have “folded like an umbrella.”
With the election less than two months away, there are far more consequential issues piling up for the editorial board to focus on than obsessing over who a Senate candidate might or might not talk about.
— Bob Johnston, Chicago
Meeting between Trump, Xi
Let’s hope that this week’s meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump turns out to be more than a friendly state dinner. There are some indications that the Chinese president may be inclined to put pressure on Iran to stop curtailing the flow of oil since it’s probably in both our countries’ interest to lower gasoline prices.
Therefore, while it may be difficult for Trump to ask for Xi’s help, given his personality, he needs to realize that sometimes being a bit humble is more effective than trying to be in control. The unknown is what Xi may want in return for his assistance.
In any case, it is good to see these two powerful leaders talking and not issuing threats.
— Dan Schuchardt, Wheaton
Trump-free reporting
Did you enjoy the Tribune’s reporting earlier this week? Instead of the non-news of the White House helipad, the Tribune’s articles and photos focused on important events. Some articles of interest reported on Douglass Park in the aftermath of Riot Fest, the injury of Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and the remembrance of Dia de los Muertos. These are events that I care about.
My morning coffee tasted so much better without the news about the helipad accompanied by a photo and the mumblings of a grinning Trump. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, but this new focus made me fonder of the Tribune, not Trump.
— Mary Ann Kehl, Wilmette
A peak fit for Trump
I very seldom agree with President Donald Trump, but on this goal for his legacy, I agree with him. He thinks he should have his face on a mountain. Mount Rushmore already has the faces of four presidents on it. He should not have to share his legacy with theirs.
There is a 6,937-foot peak in the North Cascades that can be seen from farther away than Rushmore. It is in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Access is off State Route 20, so a visitor center is easily located.
The mountain is aptly named for such a president as Trump. I personally would like to contribute to a fund to put his image on Crooked Bum Peak.
— Chuck Johnson, Morris, Illinois
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