To the Editor:

It cannot be downplayed any longer. We are experiencing a power grab by a right-wing clique in allegiance to a Führer (or “King”, as he sees himself) who respects no constitutional bounds, enabled by spineless Republican senators.

Our freedom is in serious jeopardy. Institutions that could exert control have been stymied. The Department of Justice and bureaucracy have been cleansed as in totalitarian countries. Soon nobody will be able to stand up to Donald Trump’s craziness. Laws he dislikes will be ignored, and billionaires' interests will prevail over our health and environment. Elon Musk and his juvenile thugs act like Nazis; he advised Germans to vote for a Nazi party. Not efficiency but promotion of his wealth guides him. Vice President J.D. Vance, having once compared Trump to Hitler, meets with Germany’s Nazi party leader, but not with the German chancellor.

Trump snubs America's allies in NATO, once considered the bulwark of freedom, aligns with Vladimir Putin, a mass murderer, and blames Ukraine for defending itself. His talk about getting Greenland and the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state and ethnically cleansing Gaza must be taken seriously.

He makes America safe by freeing violent criminals, and renames the Gulf of Mexico. His acolytes, doggish like Hitler’s henchmen, want to see him already during his lifetime on Mount Rushmore and propose a third term for (only) him, the "greatest president of our lifetime" (Speaker Mike Johnson). A servile Supreme Court already invented far-reaching immunity for Trump, allowing him, with impunity, to commit crimes to suppress opposition.

Neither inflation decimals nor egg prices are now at stake. When the house is on fire, you do not philosophize whether to plant carrots or tomatoes.

If we do not wake up now, it will come true what Trump said before the election: "Vote for me now. Then you won't have to vote again."

Only We the People can stop him. Let’s start thinking how.

Manfred Wiegandt