Trump offends, voters approve

Re “Trump’s rally was a dud. Sessions’ tweet about it was pathetic,” Opinion, June 23

Opinion commentary on President Trump’s rally in Tulsa continues with the usual criticisms: The president is authoritarian, fascist, racist, incompetent and incoherent. Jonah Goldberg joined the chorus, belittling former Atty. Gen. Jeff Session’s supportive tweet about the rally.

In 2016, the L.A. Times printed my letter to the editor about blue-collar workers supporting Trump. I wrote that these people were tired of career politicians in both parties not delivering on their promises. They wanted something different, and they got it.

The ever-present desire to characterize Trump’s words and deeds as the epitome of psychological depravity only serves to reinforce reasoning for electing Trump in the first place — he refuses to do and say as the political class, media, resistance and experts demand of him. Every time he acts out of place, their outrage is unleashed, as if some unprecedented calamity has occurred.

I have never been a Trump supporter; however, it is clear to me that those who continue to howl at Trump’s moon are a perfect match for the president in reality distortion and incompetence. If anything can help Trump win again, it is them. Joe Blackman

Sierra Madre

As a Republican turned Democrat, I’ve watched Goldberg try to minimize the indefensible by attacking Trump’s actions, but then diminishing their harm with false equivalencies and saying that other politicians do similar things.

Hats off this time to Goldberg, who calls out the cancer in our democracy without muddling his message, and also calls out the circle of enablers delaying our recovery. Les Hall

Santa Ana

Kudos to Goldberg for his column. I’ve never seen the situation described so well as when Goldberg wrote the following:

“The most depressing thing about the Trump presidency hasn’t been Trump himself, but what it has exposed in others — not just in the politicians who will debase themselves to prove their loyalty to a man incapable of returning it, but also in voters who apparently need to be told that the naked emperor’s new clothes, or at least his water drinking skills, are ‘Masterful!’”

Bravo, Mr. Goldberg! Ted Bacino

Palm Springs