To the editor:

After the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump was ineligible to be on the state’s presidential ballot for his violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment insurrection clause, Republicans — starting with Trump — howled. Trump said the court’s 4-3 decision eliminated “the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice.”

Yet eliminating the right of voters to make a choice is exactly what Trump has called for on several occasions. In 2011Trump argued that Barack Obama should not be allowed to run for president because he (Obama) was not born in this country. Without a shred of evidence Trump stated that Obama’s “grandmother in Kenya said, ‘Oh, no, he [Obama] was born in Kenya and I was there and I witnessed the birth.'”

During the 2016 Republican primaries Trump stated that Ted Cruz should be disqualified from running for president because the Texas senator was born in Canada. Once again no evidence to support this allegation. After Cruz won the Iowa caucuses Trump said: “The State of Iowa should disqualify Ted Cruz from the most recent election on the basis that he cheated — a total fraud!”

During the 2016 presidential campaign Trump repeatedly stated that Hillary Clinton should “not be allowed to run” because she had classified material on a private email server. In June, 2023 federal prosecutors indicted Trump alleging the former president stored classified documents (some “top secret”) in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, office space, a bedroom and a storage room at his Mar-a-lago” estate.

Trump’s hypocrisy and that of his MAGA supporters is boundless.

George J. Bryjak

Bloomingdale

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Sources

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Atkinson, K. (2015) “Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘shouldn’t be allowed to run,'” Oct. 10, MSNBC, www.msnbc.com

Blake, A. (2023) “A Trump refrain: Disqualification for thee but not for me,” Dec. 20, The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com

Costa, R. and P. Rucker (2015) “Trump says Cruz’s Canadian birth could be ‘very precarious’ for GOP,” Jan. 5, The Texas Tribune, www.texastribune.org

Haberman, M. and M. Flegenheimer (2016) “Donald Trump says Ted Cruz stole victory in Iowa causes,” Feb. 3, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com

Kinnard, M. (2023) “A side-by-side look at the Trump, Biden classified documents,” Jan. 14, AP, www.apnews.com

“Photos from Trump’s indictment show boxes of classified documents stored in Mar-a-Lago shower, ballroom” (2023) June 9 “PBS News Hour, www.pbs.org

Riccardi, N. (2023) “Colorado Supreme Court declares Trump in ineligible for the White House,” Dec. 19, Associated Press News, https://apnews.com

“14 of Trump’s most outrageous ‘birther’ claims – half from after 2011” (2016) April 7, NBC Today, www.nbc.com