On Oct. 18, I participated in the “No Kings Rally” in Fredonia. On returning home I was subjected to scorn and derision, which was to me nothing but water off a duck’s back.

Meantime the President’s followers are accusing those who disagree with him of being afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome. TDS is an imaginary disorder invented by President Trump’s followers because they refuse to admit there may be some reason and logic for objections to the President’s policies and actions.

Let us look at the crowd in Fredonia. There were 500 or 600 patriots peacefully exercising their rights under the first amendment. There was no violence or vandalism, unlike the barbarian horde that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. There was no attempt to interfere with the normal processes of government, unlike the Visigoth criminals who attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6. I dare say that the 6 million or 7 million patriotic Americans who demonstrated on October 18 did less damage to physical infrastructure than the several thousand criminals who attacked the Capitol in 2021.

Many times, I have been told that there are no reasons to object to President Trump or his policies and actions. In the immortal words of Alfred E. Smith, let us look at the record.

In 2016, Candidate Trump had a lot to say about federal deficits and the national debt, and his first order of business was to get those two items under control. The minute the polls closed in 2016, we never heard another word about fiscal responsibility. It was more important to give his billionaire friends a big tax cut and pile the additional debt on the less economically advantaged. The same thing happened in 2025. The Big, Beautiful Bill gave the billionaires a great big tax cut and piled $1.5 trillion of new debt onto our children and our grandchildren.

Then there was foreign policy. During the campaign there was a lot of talk about an immediate end to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine. Instead, Trump had a lot to say, and his Zionist counterparts are still killing babies and staining sand and concrete with innocent blood. Worse yet, American companies are still selling bombs and bullets to the IDF so the infanticide can go on. President Trump has the power to issue an executive order embargoing the sale of military goods to countries. That would do a lot to promote peace. Why hasn’t he done that?

This country fought a war with the Barbary Pirates and the War of 1812 with England to establish freedom of the high seas. Doesn’t that mean that boats from Venezuela have the right to traverse the Gulf of Mexico? Where does Trump get the power to be police, judge, jury, and executioner on suspected and alleged drug smugglers? Does this mean that the Chinese have the right and power to blast the USS Nimitz out of the water if our naval ships should cross the 9-Dash Line or transit the Strait of Taiwan?

In this country we have a Constitution with a Bill of Rights. In there it says that every suspect has a right to due process. How is it that ICE in America can act like the Gestapo or the KGB? In fact, one person in Fredonia had a poster that said, “Republican for Habeas Corpus.”

Finally, there is the issue of President Trump’s hypocrisy. Netanyahu got invited to lunch at the White House. Francesca Albanese, who carried U.N. credentials, was supposed to give a report at the U.N. General Assembly. Our state department denied her a visa on specious reasoning, so she had to make her report to the U.N. virtually.

Larry Zollinger is a South Dayton resident.