LETTER: Shift in power

Published 1:30 am Saturday, April 4, 2026

Long before he bulldozed the east wing of the White House, President Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to our constitutional government.

Cherished rights and freedoms that most Americans take for granted are in jeopardy.

Anyone who dares speak truth to Trumpian power can be accused of treason, sedition or domestic terrorism.

The media is being suppressed.

The right to vote is under assault.

Government officials no longer need a warrant to search your home.

U.S. citizens can now be arrested and detained without cause.

The balance of power is shifting.

The executive branch is usurping the power of the purse and the power to declare war; powers that, by our Constitution, belong solely to the legislative branch.

The only way any of this is happening is due to the compliance and complicity of the other two branches of government.

The majority of the legislative Republican leadership opted to replace their oath of office with allegiance to a single individual.

A hyperpartisan Supreme Court, through an arcane line of reasoning, decided to grant broad immunity to the executive branch, thus elevating the president above the law.

In so doing, they created an imperial presidency out of whole cloth.

In 1787, at the close of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what form of government the United States was to have, republic or monarchy?

Mr. Franklin reportedly said, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Robert Fletcher

Sequim