“I can say confidently that under the Trump Administration we are witnessing the renewal of the American Dream”

The office of MAGA cheerleader, Congressman Nick Langworthy, releases a weekly newsletter to his constituents in Western New York’s 23rd Congressional district. The district comprises all of Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany and Tioga Counties and parts of Erie, Schuyler and Steuben. Langworthy, born in Jamestown, is a graduate of Pine Valley Central School and Niagara University. He was long active in Republican state politics before being elected to Congress in 2022. Interestingly, he defeated Carl Paladino, whom he had endorsed for governor in 2010, in the Republican primary for the seat. He is currently serving his first term in Congress. The above referenced quotation is from his newsletter dated March 9.

I am grateful to the Post-Journal for the opportunity to identify Congressman Langworthy through the insipid boilerplate drivel I receive from his office each week. Langworthy takes pride in amplifying the utter nonsense delivered by Trump trumpeting the glorious Golden Age surging in America. If he truly believes, which I suppose he does, the continual lies and misinformation the President so shamefully repeats ad nauseum, he is a fool. If he simply, like so many Republicans in Congress, out of fear bends to the will of one who pleasures in the assault on the Rule of Law and normalcy in this country, he is a coward and a liar himself.

“As President Trump said, he is moving at a swift and unrelenting pace. In just under two months, we can see that the state of the union is on a path back to strength.”

From the newsletter also dated March 9, following Trump’s speech to Congress March 4. What strength? The strength of a wannabe bully autocrat who aligns with Russia and North Korea and Belarus in a French sponsored UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine? Russia and North Korea? Belarus? We are left to understand, then, that Langworthy supports Trump’s Putin bromance. I have yet to see any mention of foreign policy in the newsletters unless it be exuberant applauding over the deportation of anyone the administration considers without evidence or due process a foreign terrorist. Congressman Langworthy, how do you feel about the current American foreign policy that legitimizes dictators at the expense of traditional western allies?

“This week I introduced the Veto Your Visas Act, which would revoke the student visas of those involved in support of any Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), including Hamas.”

How proud of his bill is the Congressman. The bill would require universities to report any student holding an academic visa if the student “…has participated in or endorsed activities in support of a foreign terrorist organization.” Langworthy is obviously responding to the detention of Mahmoud Khalil by Homeland Security for his having spoken out against the carnage in Gaza. Khalil has been removed from his home in New York and placed in detention in Louisiana. He is a postgraduate from Columbia University active during the recent campuswide protests there. Mr. Khalil has not been charged with any crime. He holds a green card. His wife, an American citizen, is in her final month of pregnancy with their first child. Marvelous how the MAGA crowd extols Free Speech, deplores cancel culture on university campuses, but condemns First Amendment rights when the speech challenges their agenda. In his March 20 update Langworthy includes a poll asking “Do you believe a student in the U.S. on a visa should be deported if they support a Foreign Terrorist Organization?” Answer Yes, No or Unsure/Other. What in your understanding, Congressman, constitutes support?

About DOGE: the Congressman has referred with pride to something he has called the DOGE Caucus, presumably that number of representatives who enthusiastically endorse Elon Musk’s chain saw approach to gutting agencies and institutions intentionally created by Congress to be independent of partisan politics. USAID is, perhaps, the most egregious example. Musk has claimed that no one has died as a result of the agency’s demise. This is false. Journalist Nicolas Kristoff has reported eyewitness testimony to the deaths of at least two children in Sudan due to lack of life-giving medications supplied by USAID. Analysts prophesy the number of deaths worldwide after the essential elimination of USAID to be in the hundreds of thousands. DOGE has claimed federal savings through firings and other cost cutting measures in the billions of dollars. A closer look at its MAGA accounting revealed savings claimed included money already spent on certain federal contracts and money saved on contracts previously canceled.

This Congress and you, Nick Langworthy, have shamefully abdicated your responsibility as a necessary check on Executive power. You are willing to grant to Donald Trump the authority that constitutionally belongs to you. Shame.

Paul Leone is a Jamestown resident.