Thune can help put an end to the chaos

Reckless and unhinged are adjectives that I and tens of millions of Americans are using to characterize last week’s bizarre behavior of pretend monarch Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland and the actions of ICE/ Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis as they killed VA ICU Nurse Alex Pretti.

The second reckless ICE killing in Minneapolis this month. Trump’s reckless and unhinged verbosity has severely severed, if not destroyed, the NATO agreement that has secured a rule-based international order for 80 years while the reckless and unhinged killing by ICE/ Border Patrol agents has resulted in further loss of Department of Homeland Security credibility in the composite mind of the American public.

I am convinced the two events are closely related in that unhinged and reckless behavior on the part of our nation’s top elected official sets the tone for the actions of subordinate officials.

Thus we witness the US Department of Justice initiating purely political investigations; the Department of Defense attacking small vessels on the high seas; the Department of Health and Human Services abandoning fact based vaccine protocol; the US State Department freezing funding for aid programs serving our globe’s most destitute humans; in addition to the Department of Homeland Security abandoning it’s primary role of protecting the homeland from the actions of foreign agents in favor of executing massive assaults on our immigrant population and US citizens caught in the undisciplined melee.

As citizens we can express our sorrow and disgust with what we are witnessing through exercise of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly secured by the First Amendment and we can register our desire for change at the ballot box this coming November, but only elected members of the US House and Senate and members of the federal judiciary can cause change now. Change in the behavior of ICE/ border Patrol agents can result quickly if the absurd $191.6 billion authorized spending for DHS through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is dramatically reduced in the budget bill before the US Senate this week.

Three thousand federal agents would not be forcibly occupying Minneapolis for weeks if there were not a high level of funding to make it possible. Secretary Noem would not spend $200,000,000 to prepare a video praising Trump or $100,000,000 to mount an ICE recruitment campaign directed at gun show attendees, NASCAR fans and UFC enthusiasts if extravagant funding were not in place.

The US Senate can send Secretary Noem and her poorly trained, undisciplined storm troopers a clear message by rolling the DHS budget back to a level that better reflects their primary mission rather than the Trump/ Steve Miller directed war on immigrants and peaceful protesting citizens.

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune more than anyone can determine if the US Senate endorses the unhinged and reckless behavior of ICE/ Border Patrol agents or instead understands the need to rein in this invasion and attack on our nation’s cities and countryside by reducing their approved spending.

Will Senator Thune continue to appease the pretend monarch, or will he provide leadership in restoring Congressional restraint on the unbridled assertion of power by the executive?