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Trump's immaturity is dangerous

More than divulging classified “intel” to Russia, the president’s need for ego gratification is the key threat to national security.

Trump's immaturity is dangerous

The most dangerous element of President Trump's disclosure - to an adversary of the United States, no less - of classified intelligence material received on a confidential basis from an allied nation, is also its root cause: the president's juvenile personality ("Trump confirms he shared secrets with Russians," Wednesday).

This was not a calculated divulging of information for strategic or tactical purposes, however ill-conceived; it was just Trump's way of trying to impress the Russian envoys with his own grandeur. How the Russians must have smirked at Trump's boast, "I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day."

What security can this nation have when its president acts purely on impulse and need for ego gratification? When its president is capable of cavalierly dishonoring promises to allies, compromising sensitive intelligence, and making gratuitous gifts to adversaries, just to feed his own vanity? When seemingly no act of state strikes him as sufficiently consequential to require reflection and forbearance?

It is not the president's individual missteps, appalling as they have been, that pose a threat to our nation. It is the immature and undisciplined personality they reveal - and its potential to destroy peace, prosperity, and freedom, either by a thousand improprieties or a single catastrophic malfeasance - that constitutes a clear and present danger.

|Stephen B. Heimann, Philadelphia

It's time for the 25th Amendment

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted to ensure that the person serving as chief executive of our country is emotionally and intellectually capable to fulfill his or her duties. Over the last 120 days, President Trump has increasingly acted in ways to cause concern that he does not possess those capabilities. Evidence for the need to act is sufficient. Republicans serving in elected and appointed positions have the obligation to put country ahead of party and perform the steps assigned to them by the amendment.

|Dale Scannell, Flourtown

Supporters have Trump's back

"It's becoming harder for the 90 percent of Trump supporters who are trying to stand by their man come hail or high water" ("Trump show isn't amusing," Wednesday). When did the Inquirer do that poll?

The Inquirer Editorial Board, like all Democrats, think they can tell Americans what to think and want, when it's really just wishful thinking. The American people wanted Donald Trump for president. Last month's ABC News/Washington Post poll said that Democrats were more out of touch with Americans than Republicans. Another poll said that Trump was more trusted than the media.

We just had eight years of a petulant leader, one who persistently berated Americans for being racist, homophobic, and anti-Muslim. Trump was elected to represent the middle class and its values and to shape up and trim down the fat, complacent Washington bureaucracy. That torments the left to no end, but he's here for four years, and his supporters are not going to stand idly by while a far-left culture and the East Coast media elite try to remove him from office.

|Fran Steffler, Philadelphia, fsteffler@aol.com

Request to Comey exaggerated

"I hope you can let this go" ("Comey: Trump tried to intervene," Wednesday). Seven words that the liberal media and the wacko left have blown completely out of proportion.

They are insignificant. What is important is what was said, discussed, or requested after President Trump spoke them to then-FBI Director James Comey. But, why bring that up? It doesn't fit the narrative the media wants to twist.

|Andrew J. Anderson, Glassboro, ajanderson2747@comcast.net

A house divided

Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev once said of the United States, "We will take America without firing a shot." My bet is Russian President Vladimir Putin wakes up every day and repeats those words. Khrushchev's decades-old prediction will come true unless we get a handle on the political division. Russia is winning.

|Nick D'Orazio, Philadelphia, nickdorazio01@gmail.com

Turned away from America

The Trump travel ban will have a negative effect on the United States.

I am a 70-year-old Irish citizen who planned to travel from Dublin to Philadelphia on March 16 to visit my daughter, grandkids, and my 80-year-old sister, who has cancer. Despite having received authorization through the U.S. visa waiver program to travel, I was prevented by U.S Immigration agents at Dublin Airport. I have never committed a crime or been arrested anywhere, and my credit rating is impeccable.

I am still waiting for an explanation. To add to the trauma, I learned last week that my ex-wife, the mother of my kids, was diagnosed with lung cancer at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

The behavior of U.S Immigration officials is reflecting poorly on America.

|Martin Whelan, Galway, Ireland, whelanliss@gmail.com

Sessions right about sentencing

Instead of "Harsher charges may refill prisons" (Saturday), a better headline about Attorney General Jeff Sessions' letter to federal prosecutors would have been, "Common sense restored to sentencing of drug offenders."

The story was about rescinding the Obama-era policy of not enforcing minimum sentencing for so-called nonviolent crimes. This policy ignored the fact that drugs and violence go together. How did former Attorney General Eric Holder think drug dealers collected debts, through a collection agency?

Another problem was that the policy deprived prosecutors of a very persuasive tool to incentivize criminals to testify against the ringleaders in their criminal organization.

Of course, organizations such as the ACLU and Families Against Mandatory Minimums, as well as prominent Democrats, immediately opposed this change in policy. They made no mention of the spike in crime in large cities or the opioid epidemic.

Sessions' policy change is the right thing to do.

|Joe Bowers, Phoenixville, joseph.h.bowers@comcast.net