Editor, News-Register:

Why has Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered our largest, most lethal aircraft carrier with supporting destroyers and guided missile ships to sail near Venezuela? Trump says it’s to stop drug traffickers, yet, at the same time, he released from prison the Honduran ex-president, who was convicted of massive cocaine trafficking into our country. The aircraft carrier was moved from the Eastern Mediterranean, near the Ukraine conflict. Trump seems to be abandoning our allies in Europe, giving Russia the opportunity to expand its war-stolen territory in Ukraine, while at the same time he’s picking a fight in our hemisphere with fishermen in small boats. Admiral Alvin Holsey is resigning in protest. Have Trump’s loyalties truly toward aggressive dictators like Putin? Americans need to know.

China is watching us closely and assessing whether we would defend Taiwan, Japan, and Korea if they pulled a “Putin” in the Western Pacific.

Bruce Joffe

Piedmont