Dear Mr. Trump,

Once a thief, always a thief.

It didn’t bother you to steal from the contractors who worked for your company by failing to pay them what you’d promised and forcing them into costly litigation, perhaps to get only fifty cents on the dollar if they were lucky.

It didn’t bother you to steal from investors when your companies went bankrupt, and they lost their investments, while you escaped, bragging about your acumen as a businessman.

And now it doesn’t bother you to steal by virtue of this fake national emergency.

You’re stealing the money that was appropriated for other projects, in particular the military construction projects for which Congress allocated funds after extensive negotiations and deliberations. You’re stealing the vastly improved military housing that those funds would have provided to the families who sacrifice everything for our country.

But it’s much more serious. You’re also stealing Congress’s power to decide how our tax dollars are spent; you’re stealing power that the Constitution expressly does not give you.

Didn’t you get elected with the promise that Mexico would pay for your wall, which the majority of the country doesn’t want and which Congress wouldn’t pay for?

Consider these àpropos synonyms for “thief”: larcenist, pickpocket, poacher. They all describe you, your way of doing business, your way of governing.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger