Open Forum: Trump continues to blur facts | Winchester Star | winchesterstar.com

I will preface this by admitting that I have been diagnosed by some who have read my comments in the past of suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Just wanted to get that out in the open. I also will admit that I did not watch the entire SOTU address. Did not want to spend what turned out to be one hour and forty-seven minutes listening to the ramblings of Grandpa Simpson. I did skip through the “speech” and wanted to comment on some of the lowlights and a few things that were not mentioned at all.

The One, Big Beautiful Bill that Trump touts as giving the “largest tax cut in history” is not true. What is true, according to The Center for Economic and Policy Research, is that Trump's tariffs are the largest tax increase in over 30 years.

Trump stated, again, that “cheating is rampant in our elections, it's rampant.” Even by studies conducted by the despicable Heritage Foundation, the overall percentage of fraudulent voting is infinitesimal, and in the last presidential election there were more dishonest votes from republican backers than democrats.

Trump continues to claim he is the Prince of Peace, ending “8 wars.” This has been fact checked so many times it is ridiculous. I will tell you one war he didn’t end that he said he could end with a single phone call to his BFF Vladimir, is the war in Ukraine. And just to remind people, Russia invaded Ukraine, yet the U.S. terms for peace always side with Russia. Maybe the Russian hoax wasn’t a hoax after all. Slava Ukraini! [translation: Glory to Ukraine] Heroiam slava!!! [translation: Glory to heroes!]

Trump spoke of the 18 trillion dollars in commitments he has secured from “all over the globe.” Could someone, possibly our areas congressional representative, please show me where Trump gets this number? And if Representative Cline would also be so kind, as he was on the DOGE caucus, please print out all the money saved by Elon Musk’s chainsaw cutting of federally-run agencies. Please balance it out with the cost of rehiring staff that were found to be essential after the fact.

He and his minions brag about the DOW going over 50,000. Heck, AG Bondi brought it up when she was supposed to be discussing the Trump-Epstein Files. It is true the DOW hit an all-time high. It is also true that about every president over the past 50 years could make that claim during their time in office.

Trump announced a new DOJ division for national fraud enforcement. Who would know better than Trump, a man convicted of 34 counts of fraud?

Two final thoughts. Are the Trump tariffs designed to develop new trade alliances throughout the world for everyone but the U.S.? It certainly appears that other countries are making new trade, forming new trade routes and minimizing reliance on the U.S. And could Karoline Leavitt please stop saying the “the American people” voted for all this. Trump received less than 50% of the total vote.

David Booth is a resident of Cross Junction.