To the editor: The report relating to the limited-edition passport to mark America’s 250th anniversary is revealing (“U.S. will issue commemorative passports with Trump’s picture for America’s 250th birthday,” April 29). With our nation $39 trillion in debt, one wonders if that is really one of the best precedence. Is that this actually essential? Can the president — who as soon as ran casinos into bankruptcy — sink any decrease?
The branding that includes his identify and face is relentless: first a “meme coin,” then his identify on the Kennedy Middle and a number of federal buildings. His signature — these sharp peaks like Manhattan skyscrapers in heavy black marker — is even destined for our forex. And now, our passports. Actually?
Are we nonetheless a republic? Can we nonetheless say, “We the Individuals”? Quickly, Individuals could also be strolling the globe with this doc in hand. I discover this deeply regarding; it’s a warning we will now not ignore.
Our nation is drifting from the Founding Founders’ imaginative and prescient. To be an American means standing towards this erosion of democratic symbolism — an unfolding vainness that threatens our traditions not solely globally, however in our very souls.
Dimitris Eleas, Brooklyn, N.Y.
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To the editor: My father-in-law would say that President Trump has by no means met a mirror that he didn’t like. Very like the pharaohs of Egypt, Trump’s ego requires that he construct tributes to himself in order that he has his place in historical past.
However even with out his ballroom, arch, gold cash and portrait on limited-edition passports, he’ll at all times be remembered. How can we ever overlook the chaos he has created in our nation and on this planet along with his tariffs and his $25-billion (so far) conflict of alternative with Iran?
A lot for eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse.”
Joseph Garcia, Yorba Linda
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To the editor: My passport is because of expire in two years. I intend to replace it ASAP. At my age, I in all probability have 10-15 years of journey left, and the very last thing I wish to do is carry round a doc with an image of the man who impressed an assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Chuck Heinz, West Hills
