Trump May Be a Loud Mouth, but He Tells It Like It Is

The people who are drawn to Mr. Trump are not the usual conservative and tea party folks rising once again. These people are new to politics and are tired of getting lip service from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

July 22, 2015 6:21 p.m. ET

In regard to your July 20 editorial “Trump and His Apologists”: Here in New Hampshire I attend as many political events as possible. The folks I am seeing at Donald Trump’s meetings are far from all the usual political wonks. In fact, I see more new faces than those I know. At the office opening of Mr. Trump’s headquarters in Manchester last month, Ivanka Trump’s question of how many people had worked on a political campaign before raised less than a half-dozen hands in the packed office. The people who are drawn to Mr. Trump are not the usual conservative and tea party folks rising once again.

These people are new to politics and are tired of getting lip service from politicians on both sides of the aisle. To categorize them as crazies is worthy of an apology, but I don’t hear anyone railing for an apology to these voters. It is also a recipe for telling them to tune out and that it will be business as usual in D.C. Should Mr. Trump not get the nomination for president, his following will be looking for a new candidate who most represents their views, and certainly will not consider one who has criticized them.

It is also disconcerting to see our Republican presidential hopefuls continue to get in a circular firing squad. As Republicans, we do the work of destroying each other for the Democrats and then they get a free ride to the finish line in 2016. Our presidential hopefuls would be much better served by understanding where the real opposition is and trying to embrace all these newly engaged voters in the process.

Rep. Pamela Tucker (R.)

Greenland, N.H.

Like so many loudmouths, Mr. Trump never quite completed his adolescence and seems stuck in that macho phase where any challenge is a dare and must not be avoided. So when his fellow Republicans vehemently berate him, they are playing in his ballpark and to his fans who otherwise would likely vote Republican. But once Republicans go after him, they are the losers, and Hillary Clinton the beneficiary. (No fool she, castigating the Republicans for insufficiently taking him to task.)

The more the Republicans attack him, as if to show their bona fides, the more certain it becomes to me that he will run as a third-party candidate, to the great benefit of Mrs. Clinton.

Frederic Wile

New York

Even if you do not agree with everything Mr. Trump says, and the way he says it, you have to be honest with yourself and admit that he is doing something the Republicans and Democrats are afraid to do, and that is telling it like it is.

I’ve listened to the likes of Rick Perry—they are all talk and no action. Because Ted Cruz has been mum on this issue, you write that he is hoping to inherit Mr. Trump’s votes. Mr. Cruz is his own man and has always been. As for the others, ever hear of “follow the leader?” There is no leader so therefore they are all making fools of themselves.

It is time to stand up to the same old rhetoric that is coming from both parties.

Kathleen Downs

Wake Forest, N.C.

Mr. Trump displays his ignorance and shallowness with his comments in regard to Sen.John McCain. It is not the act of getting captured (shot down and captured while performing a bombing mission in the case of Sen. McCain) that is heroic, but how the prisoner of war maintains himself by adhering to the standards of the uniformed code of military justice during captivity despite torture, malnutrition and neglect. Additionally, Sen. McCain refused early release when it was offered, choosing not to be treated any differently than his fellow POWs.

Capt. Joe Hodge USN (Ret.)

Pensacola, Fla.

You lump the race-baiting Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond in with Henry Wallace. As vice president, Wallace took unpopular positions supporting desegregation, universal health care and constructive relations with the Soviet Union, leading to him being replaced with the more traditional Harry Truman as FDR’s vice presidential nominee in 1944. Undaunted, Wallace ran on the Progressive ticket in 1948, getting eggs thrown at his feet as he defended unpopular yet prescient ideas. I can’t imagine history remembering Donald Trump for advancing forward thinking yet unconventional views.

David Murray

Chicago