To the Editor:
“Trump Is Turning America Into a Psychotic State,” by Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner (Opinion guest essay, April 12), is disconcerting on many levels. To date, the other two branches of our government have failed to hold President Trump in check.
Perhaps he feels that the Supreme Court decision that granted him sweeping immunity allows him to rule without restraint. Congress seems unwilling to hold the president accountable when he clearly acts beyond the legal limits.
These factors, combined with a president who can be emotionally unbalanced and whose circle of advisers seldom pushes back, place the country in an extremely precarious position.
Amy M. Ferguson Dunmore, Pa.
To the Editor:
Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner are ultimately making an argument about process, not just personality. Strip away the rhetoric, and what remains is a concern that the machinery of government — deliberation, consistency, institutional memory — is no longer reliably engaged. When that discipline weakens, policy begins to look less like strategy and more like improvisation.
The United States has weathered strong presidencies, weak presidencies and moments of real turmoil. What is different here is the suggestion of sustained unpredictability at the institutional level. That is not a governing philosophy. It is the absence of one.
I’ve seen more stable direction from a weather vane — and at least it knows which way the wind is blowing. At this point, the only consistent policy is inconsistency, and even that seems subject to revision.
Douglas Shields Pittsburgh
To the Editor:
Jonathan Rauch and Peter Wehner lay out in depressing detail President Trump’s lethal combination of qualities: evil, ignorance, out-of-control anger and disorganization. And he has freed up and nurtured the parts of our society and culture that share those qualities.
The results have plunged the rest of us into a state of dread.
But on Friday, as I was mesmerized watching the return of the Artemis II astronauts and the ground team that pulled off this mission, I felt a bracing shot of optimism.
We were treated to an awesome display of the qualities of the other part of our culture: thirst for knowledge, intelligence, drive, planning, attention to detail and cooperation. And diversity — among both the crew and the entire mission team. These qualities remain alive and well!
Natasha Lisman New York
Lessons From Viktor Orban’s Loss in Hungary
To the Editor:
Re “Orban Concedes in Hungary, Slowing Global Tilt to the Right” (front page, April 13):
The voters of Hungary have dealt a well-deserved blow not only to Prime Minister Viktor Orban but also to a U.S. administration that sought to prop him up. Mr. Orban’s decisive loss in his country’s election is good news for the civilized world.
President Trump and Mr. Orban enjoyed an unholy alliance, both of them being individuals who have sought to rule with an iron fist: weakening democracy, consolidating power, undermining the independence of the judiciary, restricting media freedom, engaging in corruption and favoritism, limiting dissent, cracking down on L.G.B.T.Q. rights, treating asylum seekers harshly, controlling academia, ruling by emergency powers and maintaining close ties with repressive regimes.
So strongly did Mr. Trump want his pal Viktor to win that he sent Vice President JD Vance to Hungary to express support — yet another instance of meddling in another nation’s affairs. The Vance visit may well have backfired.
Those of us who believe in our country’s tenets and values should be glad that Hungarian voters voted for a brighter future in spite of what our leader wanted them to do.
Oren Spiegler Peters Township, Pa.
To the Editor:
While much has been made of the recent election results in Hungary as a political bellwether for our own domestic contests, we risk missing the most instructive lesson of the event: the dignity of the transition itself. There is a profound, quiet power in a nation accepting a new leader with graciousness, rather than using the victory as a cudgel against the defeated.
When we politicize foreign milestones to sharpen our own partisan knives, we fail to recognize that a house divided against itself — even in its rhetoric — struggles to stand as a beacon for the democracy it purports to celebrate. Perhaps our path forward lies not in louder shouting, but in the “gentle answer” that turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1), allowing us to see the humanity in our neighbors before we see their ballots.
Janet L. Cox Columbia, S.C.
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