Letter to the editor: This is the odor of self-worship found in dictatorships, not democracies

As if the antics of Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel and Kristi Noem were not enough of an embarrassment to the Trump administration, Attorney General Pam Bondi has only made matters worse.

At a recent hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Ted Lieu (D-California) said to Bondi that “Donald Trump attended various parties with Jeff Epstein.  I want to know were there any underage girls at that party or at any parties that Trump attended with Jeff Epstein?”

Bondi responded  that “this is so ridiculous, and that they are trying to deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done.” 

That was it.

Obviously, Bondi could have answered with a simple “no” to what was a very direct and pertinent question. She didn’t, presumably, out of fear of an eventual charge of perjury.

Albeit under very different circumstances, Bondi’s arrogance, bias and shameless lack of dignity as a high official of the law bear an unmistakable resemblance to that of Roland Freisler, the president of Hitler’s “People’s Court.”

On Feb. 3, 1945, an Allied air attack on Berlin demolished Freisler’s courtroom, killing him instantly. The jurist had been conducting show trials of the Valkyrie defendants, those who had plotted to destroy the Nazi regime and end the war in 1944. Freisler, a shrieking coward, was slain by his own immorality.

A related matter is Trump’s manic compulsion to vandalize public buildings by scratching his name on them. In addition to his defacement of the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital, which is plainly illegal, the president evidently wants his moniker on Dulles Airport in D.C., Penn Station in New York City, and a new  football stadium.

This is the odor of self-worship found in dictatorships, not democracies.

Airports in Montreal, Paris and Tel Aviv were named for Pierre Trudeau,  Charles de Gaulle and David Ben-Gurion, respectively, but only after these retired, elder statesmen had died.

Not so in Soviet Russia and its satellite countries. Here were found the cities known as Stalingrad, Stalinabad and Stalino, but only during the tyrant’s lifetime. 

Will America soon have a Trumpo, and how long would it last?

Many sites still are named for the symbolic and apolitical Queen Victoria. Among these are the city of Victoria in British Columbia, the state of Victoria in Australia, the vast Victoria Memorial in the city now known as Kolkata, and the magnificent Victoria Falls in the nation now known as Zimbabwe.

But while Donald Trump has zero in common with the late queen-empress, he appears to have much in common with Andrew, formerly known as prince. 

Nothing is named after him.

Joseph Tipler

Centralia