Opinion editor's note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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The story "In rural Minnesota, the pain is worth it" (April 27) was eye-opening. Please go back and ask these voters:

  • How do you feel about deporting U.S. citizens who are 2 and 7 years old? How about a 4-year-old U.S. citizen with stage 4 cancer? A 10-year-old U.S. citizen with brain cancer? With no legal process for any of them.
  • How do you feel about food and medicine being cut off from millions of children worldwide? This includes $70 million in Minnesota-grown food.
  • How do you feel about the secretary of defense risking the lives of U.S. soldiers during an active military operation by disclosing classified plans just as they're about to happen, to his wife and brother on an unsecured chat app? What if he's also accidentally disclosing military plans to a reporter in a separate chat?

Most of all: What is the long-term goal?

Betsy Spethmann, Dundas, Minn.

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I was struck by the headline in the April 27 Star Tribune "In rural Minnesota, the pain is worth it." There is no pain yet! Really, Strib! Wait until the real effects of President Donald Trump's economic policies are felt. Recession, inflation, unemployment, small businesses closed down due to increased prices from tariffs. Let's see if rural folks continue to feel that the pain is worth it. Oh, and let's not forget Medicaid cuts and Social Security services cuts. I will be looking for that headline.

Wendy Gaskill, Minneapolis

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Every so often you run an article about how Trump's supporters still support him. You ought to find some Trump supporters who have stopped supporting him (there are some, and the number seems to be growing, for obvious reasons). The impression you give with the continued still-support-him articles is that his support continues as strong as ever. And it doesn't — not with the damage he's been doing to the economy and to government services that are not done (and could not be done as effectively, if done at all) by private entities.

Ruth Berman, Minneapolis

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After reading Karen Tolkkinen's column "Rural Minnesota Trump supporters stand by their guy" (April 29), I was confused as to both the author's essential point — because, after all, there probably should be a point — and the logic surrounding supporters' fidelity to Trump. I could not tell if Tolkkinen actually respected her interviewees and their contradictory positions. As such, it was nearly impossible to know what the author was trying to accomplish. Each of Tolkkinen's interviewees were out for a Friday night at a rural Minnesota bar. She did not say exactly how deep into the evening the interviews occurred, but, once again, suffice it to say the support expressed for Trump was incongruous and contradictory at best and probably inconsistent with the self-interests of most rural Minnesotans.

Tolkkinen then went on to suggest her interviewees felt they were finally getting honesty from politicians; pinning their hopes, I guess, on a man who the Washington Post reported either lied to or misled the American people 30,573 times during his first term alone. Finally, in an apparent nod to the hyperbole often associated with Republican criticisms about the Democratic Party's dishonesty, Tolkkinen defies logic by citing four historic examples of government dishonesty, three of which began and/or occurred exclusively under Republican presidents; the exception being the unconscionable sterilization of Indigenous and African American women, which, for some, dated from the early 1800s all the way through most of the 1970s. And guess who banned involuntary sterilization, Tolkkinen? President James Earl Carter. A little elbow grease and focused research always adds value to reporting.

Dan Haugen, Plymouth

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It was interesting to read the recent front-page article about Trump lovers in rural Minnesota. To those people I can only say, "Sorry, but you have really backed the wrong horse." The article included the following quote: "The truest believers still put their faith in Trump." Simply put, anyone who puts their faith in Trump is in for disappointment. He will let you down. He always does. He's been in office for a little over 100 days and so far he's managed to devastate our national infrastructure; frighten our senior citizens by attacking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; remove people without due process; fire many thousands of loyal, efficient government employees; weaken our military and national security; alienate our longtime friends and allies; greatly diminish our international standing; damage our economy and our relationships with trade partners with his ridiculous tariffs; flout the rule of law repeatedly; enrich his billionaire cronies; and crassly wear a blue suit to the pope's funeral. (He evidently owns only one suit.)

Placing your faith in Trump is a very unwise choice — just ask Rudy Giuliani, Michael Cohen, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former national security adviser John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence, for starters. Rural Minnesotans may have to learn their lesson the hard way, because the pain is only going to get much, much worse over the coming weeks and months. But maybe the rural Trump lovers will welcome the pain as long as they feel they're "owning the libs." How sad for us all.

Vanessa Sheridan, Apple Valley

MEALS ON WHEELS

Defunding this program won't help

Another day, another bad idea. Our president wants to defund Meals on Wheels, a program that for 50 years has provided food and assistance for aging and disabled people that allows them to live at home instead of a nursing home. So now these people will have to move into nursing homes? Good luck with that. Last August, the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) released these statistics:

  • "Forty-six (46) percent of nursing homes are currently having to limit new admissions.
  • "Fifty-seven (57) percent of nursing homes have a waiting list for new residents.​ ..."
  • "Since 2020, there are 62,567 fewer nursing home beds.
  • "Twenty (20) percent of nursing homes have closed a unit, wing, or floor due to labor shortages. ..."
  • "Since 2020, at least 774 nursing homes have closed.
  • ​"These closures have displaced 28,421 residents."

According to Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL, "It's not hyperbole to say access to care is a national crisis. Nursing homes are closing at a rate much faster than they are opening, and yet with each passing day, our nation grows older." Our only hope is that someone, somehow can talk sense into Trump and he'll rescind this bad idea like he's had to do with so many others.

Doug Williams, Robbinsdale

TRUMP'S MEME-COIN

A blatant pay-to-play scheme

President Donald Trump is offering a private dinner and VIP tour to 220 of the top investors in his meme-coin, part of his and his family's venture in to cryptocurrency. Apparently Trump and his investors have already made upward of $100 million from their trading of the coins since his inauguration. There appears to be no concern or pushback from any member on the right side of the aisle from either the U.S. Senate or House that Trump is running his business affairs from the White House.

Some of these same people had the gall to accuse President Joe Biden and his family of operating a criminal enterprise while occupying the Oval Office. Trump, through his greed, grift and corruption, makes former President Richard Nixon and his Watergate debacle look like an episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" by comparison.

Gary Langendorf, Minneapolis