Dear Editor,

I am struggling to square what this administration says with what it does.

Tariffs were sold as a win for American farmers by President Trump. Yet farmers have needed bailouts again and again: $12 billion in 2018, $16 billion in 2019, $12 billion in December 2025 and $8 billion this October. For a total of $48 billion dollars. Farmers wanted markets for their crops, not checks to cover trade-war losses.

The same inconsistency shows up abroad. Administration officials routinely call Democrats “Communists,” yet this past month the President announced a diesel deal with Vladimir Putin and waived sanctions that Congress had just passed. Russia is a Communist state, the aggressor, bombing Ukrainian cities for years.

Money flowing to Moscow is helping fund that war.

Americans deserve a clear explanation of the deal’s terms, who benefits, and why sanctions that were law are now waived. Either Russia is an adversary, or it is a trading partner. It cannot be both depending on the week.

I urge our representatives, of both parties, to ask these questions publicly and demand straight answers.

Sincerely,

Larry Podolsky