Trump did not misspeak when he supported Putin

Donald Trump did not misspeak in Helsinki. He expressed support for the man who assisted his election by systematically manipulating (with subterfuge) the American public to believe positive propaganda about Mr. Trump and negative propaganda about other candidates, not just Hillary Clinton. He continues such actions designed to undermine our democracy and our alliances in protecting our way of life.

Mr. Trump is indebted to Vladimir Putin. He will continue to deceive us by denying Russian involvement in his election and other elections. Mr. Putin endorsed Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump betrays America by endorsing Mr. Putin instead of his own country’s intelligence and values.

Vice President Mike Pence supports whatever lie Mr. Trump tells, abandoning any moral values in doing so. Both have chosen stolen power over duty. Both should be impeached.

Mr. Trump is a marketing genius but a moral ignoramus. Mr. Pence pretends to breathe morality but fails. Neither can lead this country honorably. What more will it take to open all eyes to his nature, all minds to the whole reality of the ways his administration continues to damage our values and laws in the pursuit of wealth and power, and what more to spur action to take back our country? NANCY GRAY Washington, Pa. course, the editorial board likely doesn’t actually believe what it wrote today. The PG is attempting to make excuses for Mr. Trump’s idiotic, damaging and possibly treasonous performance in Helsinki. DENNIS PARMER

Green Tree

Pittsburghers who still have any interest in getting their news from the PG are clearly smelling the Trumpist propaganda you push on us every day. Your method seems to be to mix anodyne observations with halftruths, find moral equivalency where there is none and ignore facts that make it clear what’s happening is driving our countryinto the ground.

Case in point: the July 17 editorial “It Is Better to Talk.” Sure, it’s reasonable to talk with our enemies. But what to say to them? “I trust you more than our allies and intelligence agencies”? Yet that’s exactly the tone President Donald Trump took at his press conference with autocrat Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Stop pretending everything this president does is more innocent and helpful than it clearly is. Mr. Trump is running this country into the ground, despised and held in contempt by our enemies and a disappointment to our friends. You, as a representative of the press — Public Enemy No. 1, according to the so-called leader of the free world (with our allies being Public Enemy No. 2, apparently) — ought to stop turning a blind eye to the president’s habitually disgraceful conduct. RICH WALTER

Brookline