To the Editor:
Re “Trump Takes to Twitter in Defense of Transition” (news article, Nov. 17):
On Nov. 10, President Obama told President-elect Donald Trump, “If you succeed, then the country succeeds.”
With all due respect, Mr. President, that is entirely wrong. Virtually every item on the Trump administration’s to-do list makes the country weaker, from the gutting of environmental and financial regulation, to the destabilization of international security treaties, to reducing access to health care, to the terrorization of young people working and studying under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.
More to the point, the stunning disarray, nepotism, score-settling and incompetence of the Trump transition effort make clear that your administration will not be “assisting” a transition. You will be the ones making the transition happen.
History and the national interest may demand that you not be obstructionist. But nothing requires a more positive effort in the transition, except for national security.
The courtesy of President Bush toward you is not the same: Your teams met with his, as professionals in government, albeit with policy differences. Instructing Islamophobic kooks, white supremacists and oil industry hacks in how better to degrade America is something else entirely.
CHRISTOPHER KUTZ
Berkeley, Calif.
Note from KBJ: This is what passes for argumentation in law-faculty lounges. Talk about angry white males!
