During his first term, President Trump reportedly asked then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper whether soldiers deployed during the George Floyd protests could shoot demonstrators in the legs. Esper said no.

Those now feel like the good old days.

If events in Minneapolis over the past two weeks are any indication, the rules of engagement for ICE and Border Patrol agents have shifted dramatically–toward firing into heads and torsos for the offenses of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or recording federal agents operating against civilians on American streets.

None of this should surprise us. Before electing Trump to a second term, we knew he had been convicted on 34 felony counts of fraud and had openly promised that his return to office would be about “revenge and retribution.”

In his first year back, he has celebrated that promise by ordering a military raid on Venezuela, threatening to seize Greenland from Denmark–a NATO ally–and again floating the idea that Canada should become America’s 51st state.

When asked what limits U.S. power, Trump answered: “My own morality.”

God help us if that is true.

Because when morality is personal, accountability disappears–and history shows exactly who pays the price.

JOSEPH R. FISCHER JR.

Northumberland

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom