‘The Trump Effect’: Lost Friends and a Jaundiced View of Humanity

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To the Editor:

Re “They Were My Friends for Years. Trump Tore Us Apart,” by Art Cullen (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 8):

I must thank Art Cullen for his beautifully rendered piece that speaks to one of the tragedies in the wake of the Trump presidency. This loss of friendship is a divide that is often forgotten in the wider lens of politics, reducing the Trump effect into red and blue states, Republicans and Democrats.

Mr. Cullen reminds us that the ugly impact of the Trump years is more granular, chipping away at even lifelong friendships before making the cracks too wide to heal. Of all the meanspirited excesses of the former president, perhaps this is the most unforgivable.

Paul Thaler
Bronx

To the Editor:

Art Cullen describes the loss of friends due to political differences between them. He describes himself as “woke.” He doesn’t say who broke off the friendships, but it’s been my experience, and those of friends of mine, that those on the left are much more likely to shun and shut out friends and acquaintances with conservative views than the other way around.

“If you vote for Trump I can’t talk to you anymore!” I have heard that many times, after only pointing out that Donald Trump has done some good things — not that I support him. The left has a terrible inability to countenance differing viewpoints in my experience.

Justin Cohen
Cedarhurst, N.Y.

To the Editor:

I look at people differently now.

For most of my life (and it now stretches into its eighth decade) I believed that the overwhelming majority of people were fundamentally good. At least they were pointed in the right direction, even if they were sometimes rough around the edges.

But with the insinuation of Donald Trump into our lives and our brains I no longer harbor such positive assumptions for the rest of humanity. Now, my default position is if you have abiding love for Donald Trump, you are a deeply flawed individual.