<strong>To the editor:</strong>

Five months ago, gas prices were $1.79 and the U.S. was a net exporter of energy.

Inflation was low and under control and employment numbers were recovering rapidly.

Illegal immigration was low and our borders were becoming more secure by the day.

Peace was breaking out all over in the Middle East, the Iranians were hiding under their rocks, Russians were held in check in Ukraine, and North Korea was quiescent.

We developed three vaccines in record time and were vaccinating a million people per day.

The President worked 20-hour days, had multiple public events, answered questions from all comers, and put America first.

The Army revised its Combat Fitness Test to better measure readiness for actual combat.

Now, gas prices are around $3, highest in a decade (unless you live on the Atlantic Seaboard, in which case you might be out of luck).

Biden has halted drilling on federal land and canceled Keystone XL, despite Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s statement that pipelines are the best way to transport fuel. Colonial has been hacked and Gretchen Whitmer is attempting to shut down Enbridge Line 5.

Biden has lifted sanctions on Putin’s crony who is building the Nord Stream 2, so not only the U.S. but also Germany can be dependent on enemies for our energy.

Meanwhile, in other news, John Kerry has gotten the U.S. back into the Paris Agreement as China builds a gigawatt coal burner per week and emits more greenhouse gases than the U.S. and other developed nations combined.

Inflation just clocked in at 4.2 percent, the highest in three decades. New jobs came in at 266,000, 75 percent below expectations and the worst in two decades, at a time when there are more open jobs than unemployed people but the government pays (i.e., we pay) people not to work.

There were 200,000 illegal immigrants in April, up from 17,000 last year. COVID-positive and COVID-unknown illegal aliens, not to mention their unknown status with respect to childhood vaccinations for things like MMR, DPT and polio, are being released into the interior of the country — with no clue as to their identities. Drug-smuggling and people-smuggling cartels are flourishing. The cages that Obama-Biden built, falsely attributed to Trump, are at 700 percent of capacity. Interdiction of fentanyl in Texas in April is up 800 percent year over year. At least Biden is restarting work on a 14-mile stretch of border wall near the Rio Grande. How could he have known that walls work?

Hamas fired 4,000 rockets into civilian areas of Israel, Iranian gunboats are harassing USCG ships, Russian troops are massing in Crimea on the border with Ukraine, China is conducting massive exercises on its side of the Taiwan Strait, and North Korea is back to testing short-range ballistic missiles.

We are still vaccinating a million people per day but we are still being encouraged to wear masks and to keep masks on young children, who aren’t, or weren’t, in classrooms as they should have been.

The President shows up at 9:30 a.m., might make one public appearance at which he is counseled not to take questions, and at 7 p.m. begins to prepare for bed.

The latest Army recruiting ad features Emma, who joined the Army to “discover her inner strength” and “shatter stereotypes,” as opposed to, say, accomplish a military mission. A CIA ad features an agent who suffers from gender dysphoria and generalized anxiety disorder, as opposed to possesses some skill set that would be useful in performing intelligence functions.

Biden has elevated climate change to a national security concern along with domestic terrorism. The administration’s plans with respect to these priorities should delight our enemies and scare Patriots.

Biden delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and botched plagiarizing a line from Ronald Reagan. The cadets sat on their hands — that should tell you something.

Do you miss the orange man yet?
<p style="text-align: right"><strong>Maynard Brandon, Nashville</strong></p>