Editorial: They sold out to Trump and await history's verdict

South Florida Sun Sentinel, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Feb 2, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, followed by the victim-blaming slanders from Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller, may finally have exhausted the public’s patience with the Trump administration.

We can only hope.

It bears remembering that, aside from the agents themselves, the crimes of ICE are the responsibility of amoral politicians who have unmoored themselves from the Constitution and from any accountability to the people in order to sup at Trump’s table.

Trump has “made America un-American,” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote.

He couldn’t have done it alone. No despot does. This is about you, Pam Bondi. You, Marco Rubio.

Two top sellouts

These Floridians are two top sellouts in Washington. Many others in the Cabinet, White House and Congress have joined the dark side, where conscience doesn’t follow.

The president himself seems to be aware, at long last, that it has gone too far. Getting Gregory Bovino out of Minneapolis was a start. Firing Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller should be next, although that’s probably too much good sense to expect.

But it’s encouraging to see congressional Democrats talking about impeaching the puppy-killing Homeland Security secretary. Bondi belongs on their list, too.

No Mafia don phrased the business more succinctly than Bondi did when she told Minnesota that its troubles could just go away if the state turned over its sensitive personal information on voters. Trump’s failure to contradict Bondi speaks volumes.

The siege of Minneapolis has little to do with illegal immigration, a much bigger presence in the Republican states of Texas and Florida. It’s about terrorizing a Democratic city and probing to see what more the Trump regime might get away with if it decided, for example, to prevent an election.

A line must be drawn. Senate Democrats should continue to block Homeland Security funding until the goons are gone from Minnesota and Noem is gone from Washington.

Remember history

As for Trump’s enablers, they should worry how history will treat them.

Power and glory are fleeting. Reputation is eternal. Trump’s regime will end Jan. 20, 2029. Those who helped him make America un-American must answer for themselves.

Trump’s command of Congress owes to the incapability of many politicians to see beyond the next election.

Republicans know it: To disobey Trump once is to provoke him into calling on party voters to purge them. That’s why he’s targeting Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine. Thom Tillis of North Carolina is retiring in the face of Trump’s wrath, which may well result in poetic justice — a Democrat succeeding him.

Cassidy, Collins and Tillis helped put lethal vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the nation’s health. They confirmed Bondi as Trump’s consiglieri at Justice. Cassidy and Tillis were critical to making the woefully unfit Pete Hegseth secretary of Defense. They all need to go.

Trump’s most prominent political victim is former Rep. Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican from Wyoming, who lost her seat in Congress for co-chairing the House Select Committee investigation of Trump’s conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election.

But when the future histories of the Trump years are written, it’s Cheney whom they will honor, not Trump or his enablers.

Rubio a sad example

Rubio is an especially sad example. His Senate colleagues confirmed him unanimously because of his expertise in Latin America and what seemed to be a fervent commitment to democracy everywhere.

So much for that. The Ukraine chapter in a future American history could be illustrated with the photos of Rubio cringing on the couch as Trump bullied and berated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

After he devoted his political career to extolling democracy for Cubans and Venezuelans, Rubio is AWOL as Trump and Noem send them back to the dictatorships they fled. His own parents, who escaped pre-Castro tyranny in Cuba, wouldn’t pass Trump’s immigration muster.

Come home, Marco, and salvage your reputation. A self-respecting secretary of State would resign rather than help Trump cozy up to the Venezuelan regime in return for its oil.

Rubio has been carrying out dictatorial measures at home. Documents unsealed in a federal court showed that he personally approved the deportation of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations or wrote in opposition to Israeli policy. The judge, a Ronald Reagan appointee, blocked their removal.

“These cabinet secretaries,” wrote District Judge William Young, citing Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Noem, “have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution.”

That goes for a majority of Congress, too.

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The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

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