Under normal circumstances, Marc Thiessen (March 30) is correct in pointing out that it is not the job of Cabinet officials to be a check on the president. However this is far from a normal presidency.
In a normal presidency, the president is not the most ignorant man in the room when policy issues are being discussed. In a normal presidency the president has not displayed troubling signs of mental instability.
The Cabinet officials who have attempted to contain this president were not appointed by Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama; they were appointed by Donald Trump. If we take him at his word that he has appointed “the best people,” then we should be extremely troubled by the fact that they feel a need to contain him.
The group with the ultimate responsibility to be a check on this president is Congress. Since Congress has totally failed to perform its duty, every American should be thankful that there were members of Trump's Cabinet who did their best to prevent possibly catastrophic decisions.
The new batch of Trump appointees seems less likely to fill this critical role. For this reason, it’s important to elect members of Congress willing to perform their constitutional duty to act as a check on this president.
Robert Z. Oksner • St. Louis
