In threatening to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s United States citizenship (“Trump threatens to revoke US citizenship of Rosie O’Donnell,” July 13), President Donald Trump is once again showing disdain for the principles on which this country was founded. He is also demonstrating the observation of philosopher Marcus Aurelius that an unhappy man cares more about the opinions of others than he cares about himself.
Surely, Trump has more important, more critical things to occupy his mind than to seek revenge on someone who has called him to task. This is the mark of a person who demonstrates weakness and a penchant for stirring up animosity.
In the words of Noam Chomsky, “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
It is a sad time in our country when our head of state corrupts his position of power by showing ignorance for our rights that are stated in the U.S. Constitution. As Professor Amanda Frost pointed out: “The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born American.” Otherwise, each of us would be in jeopardy of retribution at the whim of whoever is serving as president.
— Rebecca Kelman, Baltimore
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