The Trump Question: What to Do About an Erratic President?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/opinion/letters/trump-erratic.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “President Digs In on Syria Pullout as House Revolts” (front page, Oct. 17):

Phone calls to Ukraine’s president to search for dirt on a political opponent, throwing the Kurds to the wolves in Syria, erratic letters to the Turkish president and meltdowns in White House meetings raise the question:

When will President Trump’s cabinet realize as patriotic Americans that it’s time to initiate serious discussion of the 25th Amendment, which allows for the cabinet to judge the president to be unfit to carry out his presidential duties?

It is critical that it happen before the enraged president becomes even more unhinged.

Marla AllardWashington

To the Editor:

Our Kurdish allies are dying, our ISIS enemies are celebrating and Russian troops are prancing through American military camps abandoned by President Trump. American soldiers, in precipitous flight, have even begun bombing their own bases to destroy military supplies. To the world, our country looks weak, inept or both.

The House of Representatives agrees, having rebuked Mr. Trump’s actions by a bipartisan tally of 354 to 60. Has a president’s foreign policy bumbling ever before been condemned by a 6-to-1 ratio in Congress?

William DunhamBryn Mawr, Pa.

To the Editor:

Regarding the deteriorating situation in Syria and the United States’ commitment to diplomacy in the region, President Trump said, “But what does that have to do with the United States of America if they’re [Syria and Turkey] fighting over Syria’s land?”

I’ll tell you exactly what that has to do with the United States of America, Mr. President. I’m no foreign policy expert, but I can tell you that terrorist organizations thrive in exactly these kind of disastrous situations.

According to you, we don’t need to be worried because ISIS terrorists are “7,000 miles away.” No, sir, we absolutely do need to be worried. By withdrawing our troops, you just handed ISIS on a silver platter the ability to regroup and plan attacks against the West.

Hopefully I’m wrong, but history will not look back kindly on you for this.

John R. Arbitell Jr.Malvern, Pa.

To the Editor:

Re “White House Sidelined Him, Diplomat Says” (front page, Oct. 16):

Referring to the Trump administration’s machinations in Ukraine as a “shadow policy” is giving the operation far more dignity than it deserves.

Let’s call it what it is: an amateurish criminal extortion scheme to force Ukraine to manufacture dirt on a domestic political opponent.

Robert BittnerAllison Park, Pa.