Newsletter: Go ahead, laugh at Donald Trump. He deserves it, and so do we

Good morning. It is Saturday, Sept. 14. Here’s what’s happening in Opinion.

I told you Kamala Harris was a good debater. On Tuesday, the vice president put the former president back on his heels for 90 minutes, needling him in a way that caused the most dramatic meltdown in presidential debate history. When she dodged a moderator’s question, it was strategic and intentional (if obvious and a little cringe-worthy); when he did the same, it was because he was angry and lost.

Donald Trump’s performance was, well, funny — and at a moment when this nation needs a good laugh.

Here, before going further, I want to acknowledge that Trump’s bizarre comments on immigrants in Ohio eating dogs and cats, though the inspiration of some of the most perfect viral content ever on social media, puts an easily identifiable group of people at serious risk. By repeating racist disinformation about a relatively small number of immigrants, he places a target on the back of every member of a marginalized community. To borrow one of Harris’ most memorable attacks from the debate, Trump’s conduct is disgraceful, and it deserves the same amount of scorn as the laughter it got.

But like I said, this nation needs a good howl, and what better way than at the expense of a guy like Donald Trump? In that spirit, I’d like to direct you to the best commentary on the debate I’ve read all week — better than anything you heard from the spin room or from experts predicting how Trump’s decompensation in front of 65 million-plus viewers might affect his polling. It’s a letter we published from a reader who, in fewer than 200 words, perfectly holds up the ex-president’s conspiratorial thinking to ridicule without saying, “This is stupid.” It’s from an immigrant — Topanga resident Andrea Ehrgott — and if you ask me, it belongs in any future anthology on political satire from the 2024 election. Enjoy:

“Former President Trump, you are right. Vice President Kamala Harris allowed us immigrants to come to this country illegally with millions of others so that we would vote for her.

“When my insane asylum was emptied back home and my violent husband was let out of prison, we were happy to start again in a new country. Harris supported us having transgender surgery while we were staying at the luxury asylum center, generously paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

“In gratitude, we want to give back to this country in any way we can. My husband is out now selling drugs to schoolkids and, by the way, has cut back on rapes and murders. I am grateful too and when I sell my cookbook, ‘Yummy Dog and Cat Recipes,’ I will send the proceeds to abortion clinics so they can continue to execute newborn babies.

“You will see — we are hard workers.”

The pro-Trump view on the ex-president’s poor debate performance? He’s actually in a better position to win at this point than he was in 2016 and 2020, writes Scott Jennings: “Trump is Trump. We know him. We love him. We hate him. There’s nary a person in this country who doesn’t have an immediate and often visceral opinion of him. So a debate is unlikely to change his image.”

What’s with the silence from former Trump heavyweights? John F. Kelly. Dan Coats. H.R. McMaster. They all served in the Trump White House and have written critically of the former president, been a source for damning accounts of the administration or complained privately about their former boss’ incompetence. Columnist Jackie Calmes says it’s time for them to come forward and tell voters that Trump is unfit to be president again.

How can L.A. fix its scary sidewalks for the Olympics? The city has a hard time working through the backlog for repairing its infamously buckled, dangerous sidewalks. And even though state law makes homeowners responsible for maintaining the sidewalks adjacent to their property, requiring residents to make costly repairs to long-neglected infrastructure makes no practical sense. UCLA professor Donald Shoup offers a solution: a pay-on-exit system where owners can defer paying for repairs until they sell their property.

A terrible decision sparked a wildfire, and the public will pay the price. Times’ editorial board member Karin Klein wrote a book titled “50 Hikes in Orange County” and she estimates at least seven have been devastated by the Airport fire burning in the Santa Ana Mountains. “California’s wild areas eventually come back after a fire, but now that I am a white-haired wilderness lover, will they return in my hiking lifetime?”

More from opinion

From our columnists

• LZ Granderson: At the debate, Trump confessed he’s unfit and unprepared
• Robin Abcarian: What Donald Trump’s incomprehensible word salad about child care revealed

From guest contributors

• The American presidency is the most powerful job in the world. Too powerful
• Think of Donald Trump as Robin Hood in reverse
• A narrator brings us along as she makes meaning from a traumatic childhood

From the Editorial Board

• It shouldn’t take a judge to make VA house homeless vets
• Endorsement: Laura Friedman for the 30th Congressional District
• Endorsement: These five candidates will make great Los Angeles County Superior Court judges

Letters to the Editor

• I live in the Portuguese Bend landslide area. I’m not going anywhere
• “The horridness of getting out of LAX”: Trying to get a ride from the airport
• Trump’s debate failure should be a wake-up call to Republicans