Dear Editor:

Last week, a letter writer offered an encomium to the Trump administration and an invidious comparison to the Biden presidency. Both of these were riddled with exaggerations and errors.

First, his judgment about America’s fiscal health in 2024: “Our economy was shattered.” Without going into the weeds, the following report in The Economist, a preeminent journal supporting conservative, market-driven policies, refutes this claim. Published on Oct. 24, 2024 (less than two weeks before Trump’s reelection), its headline reads, “The American Economy Has Left Other Rich Countries in the Dust.” Some of its subtitles are “American productivity still leads the world,” “Why the American stock market reigns supreme,” “China’s yuan is nowhere close to displacing the greenback,” and “What can stop the American economy now?” (Sadly, the answer to this question is “Russel Vougt and Scott Bessant.”)

Second, he quotes the old saw, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” implying that Trumponomics has been beneficial for the rich and poor alike. But, as Robert Rubin once quipped, a rising tide primarily lifts expensive boats: Wealth inequality grew faster during Trump’s first term in office than during any of the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama administrations.

Third, he bemoans “the polarization of our elected officials,” blaming “our enemies” (the Democrats). Never mind Trump’s 2025 tweet, “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum […] warped radical left minds.” Or his deployment of military and ICE troops to Democratically-led cities, deepening the divide. Or his selective and vindictive use of the Justice Department to punish his Democratic opponents.

But our letter writer saved his best point for last, and it is a masterpiece of unconcious irony: The highly-paid, anti-Trump demonstrators “are an affront to […] our tradition of peaceful post-election turnover of power to the winning candidate.”

I hope for his sake that he has been out of the country, without internet access, since Jan. 5, 2021. Either way, he needs a better editor.

Bill Hammond

Boothbay