Trump’s Middle East tour: Letters to the Editor — May 15, 2025

The Issue: President Trump’s diplomatic trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

President Trump’s meetings in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are being closely watched by allies and adversaries.

(“Trump’s Mideast Vision,” Editorial, May 14).

After working on foreign policy for decades, President Joe Biden was a total failure in the Middle East.

Those failures make Trump’s diplomatic work to restore stable relations tricky, but not impossible.

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio can initiate a desperately needed reset of US-Middle East relationships to deter aggression, safeguard American interests in the region and counter further threats from Iran.

James Patterson

Washington, DC

Reading about Trump’s visit to the Middle East, I think he is doing what former President George W. Bush started but never completed — creating a Middle East Free Trade Area.

Now I understand the meaning of the quote: “George Washington created the presidency and John Adams defined it.”

Trump is defining his style, knowing the complex dynamics of the global community, and in the process, he is defining his presidency. Just like the song: “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.

Anant Nagpur

Ottawa, Canada

As an American, I’m so proud of Trump’s visit to the Middle East.

I was proud to see him carry himself so professionally and presidentially in Saudi Arabia, representing America while showing respect toward Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his country.

Mo Colarusso

Manhattan

Sen. Chris Murphy is calling the Trump trip to the Middle East a “public corruption tour.”

These do-nothing Democrats find absolutely nothing this president does well, in any sense of the word.

Where were these morons during the last four years, when we had open borders, high inflation, crime on the rise and no trade deals at all?

I truly believe if Trump cured cancer, they would say “cancer is a good thing.”

President John Kennedy must be rolling over in his grave looking at the Democratic Party of today.

He’d now be a Republican.

Philip Vallone

Ossining

The Issue: Not enough air-traffic controllers at Newark Airport amid 45-day “trauma leaves.”

I hesitantly write this letter condemning the air-traffic controllers who opted for 45-day extended leaves from their critically important duties guiding commercial airliners at Newark Liberty International Airport due to stress (“Newark fly by fright,” May 13).

I’m not sure how much they regard the safety of innocent passengers, who rely on them being in their positions in the tower.

This is especially hurtful when we all remember the recent preventable catastrophe in Washington, DC, where a commercial jetliner crashed with a US Army helicopter.

Joe Torrillo

Manalapan, NJ

The air-traffic-control-system debacle is another mess left behind by former President Joe Biden and his fumbling, stumbling crew.

Be it air, rail or sea, whenever there was a crisis, it seems Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was away on paternity leave or globe-trotting with his husband.

Nicholas Maffei

Yonkers

This airport is an accident waiting in the wings.

At one point, there was only one air-traffic controller in charge.

Sean Duffy did indeed blame the Biden administration for the existing chaos, but it’s time to put that aside and get a safe airport in order.

Ron Zajicek

Cortlandt

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