Obama didn’t do any of this

Re “Rules are for breaking, it seems,” Opinion, Sept. 11

Jonah Goldberg lays out a false moral equivalency when he compares the norm-breaking of Presidents Trump and Obama. Trump’s behavior is completely different.

Trump calling the media the enemy of the people is different from President Obama trying to prevent illegal leaks within his administration. All presidents attempt to stop illegal leaking to journalists, but they do so without demonizing the fourth estate.

Trump attacks the media merely because he does not like how he is being portrayed, no matter how true it is.

And while all politicians may lie sometimes, Trump is not at all tethered to the truth. He even bragged that he just made up facts when discussing trade recently with Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau. Trump lies with the same ease and frequency as he breathes air.

Trump has taken the most ugly and base characteristics of a bullying teenager and made it his brand, which because of his position has sullied all Americans. Paul Katz Burbank

It’s always good to have Goldberg flirt with the Democratic position, even when it’s “more or less.” As he laments Trump’s disregard of tradition and rules, he seeks some kind of equivalency with the behavior of the current president’s predecessor.

Goldberg seems to forget that in the eight years of the Obama presidency, there was not one hint of scandal. When Obama broke with tradition, it was only because the Republicans in Congress thwarted his every move.

Yet in not even two years, President Trump has been in so many scandals that we can’t keep track of them all. Goldberg can’t accept that between these two, there nothing close to an equivalency. Maralys Wills Santa Ana