William Hemmel: Blind loyalty isn’t simply a substitute for critical thinking

To The Daily Sun,

Under the category of “MAGA can be amusing,” one of my neighbors has displayed a sign since January 2025 proclaiming, “Trump was right about everything.” It gives me a chuckle every time I drive past it.

The record tells a very different story.

Numerous courts — including the U.S. Supreme Court — have ruled against him on significant legal issues. He was wrong about E. Jean Carroll. He was wrong about tariffs. He was wrong about birthright citizenship. He was wrong about his claimed authority to remove members of the Federal Reserve Board.

He was wrong about the Kennedy Center, he was wrong about the Reflecting Pool, He was wrong to try and sue the IRS and steal $1.8 billion from us.

His judgment has also fallen short in other areas. He has made repeated wrong claims about inflation, gasoline prices, job creation, illegal border crossings, non-citizen voting, and foreign interference in elections that have been challenged by official government data or rejected by the courts. Approximately 60 state and federal court decisions rejected his claims that widespread fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Finally, many Americans believe his decision to attack Iran was a serious mistake.

Reasonable people can support Donald Trump. Reasonable people can oppose him. But insisting that he was "right about everything" requires ignoring an overwhelming public record of court rulings, policy reversals, factual inaccuracies, and failed judgments.

Blind loyalty is not a substitute for critical thinking. Our democracy deserves better than slogans that ask us to disregard the evidence before our own eyes.

William Hemmel

Moultonborough