To the editor: Earlier than revealing his political want checklist for 2026, contributing author Josh Hammer lauds President Trump’s “modern use of the Nationwide Guard” (“We noticed progress and peril in 2025. There’s hope for Trump’s subsequent yr,” Jan. 1). The U.S. Supreme Courtroom, as conservative and executive-branch-favoring as nearly all of its justices are, disagrees with this sycophantic characterization in a latest 6-3 ruling, discovering that Trump didn’t have the constitutional authority to order such deployment in Chicago.
On the precise want checklist, Hammer hopes for a “victory on birthright citizenship.” Proper-wing political rhetoric that ties the 14th Modification to human trafficking is unsupported by any proof, with trafficking being extensively pushed by coercion, fraud, demand for compelled labor and intercourse trafficking. Furthermore, there isn’t any proof that undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. simply to provide start. Descriptions of birthright citizenship as “ruinous” or an “incentive for unlawful immigration” are unsupported by any vetted details.
In regard to Russia’s “authentic” pursuits in invading Ukraine: There are none, in accordance with the U.N. Basic Meeting, the worldwide group and authorized consultants. Hammer, being neither Russian nor Ukranian, finds it straightforward to say splitting the newborn is completely superb. Republicans was bulwarks towards the “Russian Bear.” Now not.
Neal Rosenthal, Woodland Hills
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To the editor: Hammer accuses the earlier administration (I infer that’s what he means by “leftist elite-driven chaos”) of participating in “hyper-vindictive lawfare,” claiming we have now now reverted to “regulation and order.” The arrest, incarceration and deportation of individuals with out due course of? Brazen defiance of courtroom orders? Frivolous lawsuits towards former FBI Director James Comey, New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James and others? The wholesale pardoning of criminals who attacked the capital? Shameless extortion of regulation companies, universities and media firms? That is Hammer’s thought of regulation and order? Give us a break.
J.B. White, Ojai
