President Donald Trump is the LaVar Ball of American politics: Like the brash basketball dad, Mr. Trump always talks a better game than he plays.
Candidate Trump vowed to "drain the swamp" in Washington and end abuses exemplified by President Bill Clinton's pardoning of numerous criminals his last hour in office, among them fugitive felon Marc Rich.
But instead of draining the swamp as promised, President Trump turned it into a cesspool with his appointment of unqualified cronies to the federal bureaucracy, and his pardons and commutations of disreputable individuals such as media mogul Conrad Black, financier Michael Milken, political dirty trickster Roger Stone and disgraced General Michael Flynn.
President Trump's actions substantiate George Orwell's adage that some people are more equal than others especially if they have money or friends in high places.
George Aldridge, Belton
