Trump gave Americans’ private information to Musk, CEO of AI co. This is corruption | Opinion

Donald Trump and his unelected ally Elon Musk, in the name of government “efficiency,” quickly moved to eliminate the staff of foreign-aid agency, USAID, and illegally stopped making payments from the agency, leading to layoffs of thousands of employees and pushing nonprofit organizations into financial crisis.

You might cheer that result, but rest assured, Trump is also coming for things you care about. Do you have a child with special needs in public school? Or a college student who receives federal loans? The Department of Education is slated to be gutted.

While programs that Americans depend on are destroyed, Trump has handed over private information about students, veterans, military personnel and social security recipients to Musk, the CEO of a for-profit artificial intelligence company. This is corruption of the highest order.

Congress must act now to insist on its power to govern before the oligarchs try to eliminate the Constitution as “inefficient.”

Jan Beiting, Cary

DEI Blamed?

Within hours of the tragic mid-air collision in D.C. — before any investigation and while bodies were being pulled from the Potomac — President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy — four white men who may be the least qualified ever to hold their offices — took to the podium to blame, without any evidence, DEI and Democrats.

Outrageously disgusting, despicable and enraging. Such a dark void of leadership and decency. Words fail. Trump supporters — you should be embarrassed and ashamed, but the most you’ll do is look away or make excuses.

Chris Cox, Raleigh

RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not qualified to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. I am a retired registered nurse and a former public health nurse. The complexities of diseases, human biology and surgical and treatment modalities are far beyond Mr. Kennedy’s abilities.

He is against vaccines and believes conspiracy theories. The health of Americans is not his priority. He has no medical training. There are thousands of medical professionals who would do a better job of handling such an important government function.

Lynne Wellin, Fuquay Varina

Surprise

What a surprise. Mark Robinson dropped his ridiculous slander lawsuit against CNN. This essentially confirms he made all those posts to a pornographic website years ago and chose to continually lie about it, hoping he could sneak his way into the governor’s mansion by fooling enough gullible voters.

As anyone who even remotely followed the 2024 governor’s race has long known, all he managed to do was to embarrass himself and his party. For the good of the state of North Carolina, Robinson needs to slither back underneath the slimy rock he emerged from and stay there.

Jon Gibson, Raleigh

Tillis’ principle

I read with interest Paige Masten’s Jan. 29 opinion piece about Sen. Thom Tillis’ steady capitulation to President Donald Trump and his merry MAGA men. I basically agree with her but do have one quibble. She said that Tillis routinely abandons his principles. I disagree.

Tillis’ primary principle is to keep his MAGA buddies happy and country be damned. He’s more of a MAGA quisling than an independent voice for North Carolina. He’ll vote for Robert Kennedy Jr. and all the rest of Trump’s clown-car of nominees. That’s not even in question.

Eric Thomas, Durham

Reading scores

It was reported that reading scores for NC students have dropped. The students nor the teachers should be blamed. Blame the tests. Some of these tests are of outdated material or material that doesn’t capture the students’ interest.

As a teacher, I have read them, and they bore me. How do we expect students to do well in reading when the material is boring. You want students to enjoy reading and get something from it, but if it is not interesting they will just rush through it. That’s the problem.

Parents should ask teachers to show them the reading tests or ask the state Department of Public Instruction to change the subject matter. Then you will see the grades go up.

Jayson Nadelson, Sanford