To the Journal editor:

Representative Jack Bergman has recently sent a statement about Donald Trump’s agenda to us from Louisiana, where he lives most of the time. Bergman, you may recall, was one of only 16 members of Congress who voted to nullify the results of the 2020 election after the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

Representative Bergman is exhorting Republicans to support Donald Trump’s agenda. He states that Trump’s agenda is to “secure our borders, restore the economy, and put America first once again”.

To be fair, Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has stopped warrantless seizures of people from their homes by masked agents, after being criticized for (killing) two American citizens in Minnesota, and is now focusing more on deporting actual criminals.

Trump’s plan for restoring the economy has consisted in large part of imposing tariffs on the products of any country whose leader criticized or displeased him. These tariffs have been passed along and paid by American citizens in the form of higher prices. His agenda for improving our economy has also included initiating an undeclared war against Iran, which continues to cost U.S. taxpayers about a billion dollars a day. Trump obviously has no workable plan to end the war, and given the Iranian response to date, is unlikely to achieve any improvement over the U. S. – Iranian agreement negotiated by President Obama, which Trump cancelled. The world’s economy, which has been devastated by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, will take years to recover.

Bergman’s statement concludes by saying Trump wants to “put America first once again”.  The evidence all around us every day is that Trump wants to put Trump first at the expense of all of the rest of us. Exhibit A is the appointment of incompetent lackeys in charge of all aspects of the federal government whose only qualifications are large campaign contributions to Trump or a slavish desire to please him, or both.

If this agenda is your idea of putting America first, as it apparently is Bergman’s, then by all means vote for Trump-supported candidates in November. If you think America can and should be better than this, contribute to, and vote for, candidates who have a different, more sensible and positive agenda.