A ship of fools

Regarding “Unvetted and unacceptable” (Editorial, April 25): A prime example of the adage “Flattery will get you everywhere” is President Trump’s nomination of White House physician Ronny Jackson to head the Veterans Affairs Department.

When Jackson declared the borderline obese and junkfood-eating president to be in “excellent health,” he quickly ascended into Trump’s inner circle of sycophants. Jackson is as qualified to run the Veterans Affairs Department as Betsy DeVos is to be secretary of education, as Ben Carson is to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and as Scott Pruitt is to be head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Sadly, this 45th president is not really a commander in chief, but more like the ridiculous Groucho Marx character Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding (from the long-ago film “Animal Crackers”), in charge of a ship of fools.

Arthur Leibowitz, San Francisco