Trump's letter in food boxes leaves some food banks between a 'rock and a hard place'

[G_j]

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/10/22/trumps-letter-food-boxes-leaves-some-food-banks-sticky-position/3711017001/?fbclid=IwAR2zurL0zywjs2GlB9PwJ9pewM9V4MAH6BsHqdnJnRetxSy5ZT6r3_Gjk9A

Trump's letter in food boxes leaves some food banks between a 'rock and a hard place'

Mackensy Lunsford
Asheville Citizen Times

Round three of the USDA's Farmers to Families Food Box program came with an extra addition among the fruit: a signed letter from president Trump.

The letter, printed in English and Spanish, described the millions of food-aid boxes delivered to doorsteps as part of the White House coronavirus response.

"As President, safeguarding the health and well-being of our citizens is one of my highest priorities," it said.

The USDA has required all Coronavirus Food Assistance Program-contract vendors responsible for packing the boxes to include the letter, though it does not require nonprofit distributors to do the same.

But Randall acknowledged that given the looming election, many other organizations were alarmed at the potentially partisan nature of the letter, and whether distributing it to clients could be seen as a political endorsement.

..more..

[Newest Reality]

1. Trump is now like a disease infecting everything he can. He is literally an orange rat infestation.

[utopian]

2. We've been getting these boxes at the food pantry I run

We remove every offending letter before distributing the food. I imagine many others are doing the same.

[dawg day]

3. Dangling modifier

"Safeguarding" isn't president.

Sorry, grammar stickler here. And his communication people ought to be too.

The letter should be discarded if only for that.

[hedda_foil]

4. Nope. Safeguarding is a gerund which can be used as a noun and is the subject of the sentence.

safeguarding noun
Synonyms of safeguarding (Entry 2 of 3)
as in security, protection
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/safeguarding

Safeguarding is the highest priority.

It's a little awkward but grammatically acceptable.

[dawg day]

5. No, it's a dangling modifier. "Safeguarding" would also have to be the subject of the modifier.

We're talking about two different things. I agree a gerund can be a subject-- it's a participle used as a noun. But it creates a dangling modifier here of "As president." It's not that it's a gerund that is the problem, it's that it is not the person who is or would be president.

With introductory modifiers like "As president," the sentence subject also has to be the subject of the modifier.

As president, I will safeguard you--

Would still be a lie, but would be grammatically correct.

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/mechanics/dangling_modifiers_and_how_to_correct_them.html#:~:text=A%20dangling%20modifier%20is%20a,the%20doer%20of%20that%20action.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. I think that it's a lie is more important

Safeguarding the health and well-being of citizens is well down the list of his priorities, after:
staying out of prison
getting re-elected
getting money
being respected by authoritarian leaders
having sex with any woman still stupid enough and with low-enough standards to have it with him
sticking it to other women, minorities, liberals, scientists, and anyone not sufficiently obsequious to him
keeping Ivanka out of prison ...

[crickets]

7. The "partisan nature of the letter" was the point for including it.

Of course it's a political endorsement; that's why donnie insisted on it.

Nonprofits, which are obligated under federal tax law to operate as nonpartisan ventures to maintain their tax-exempt status, are worried that either removing or distributing the letter could be viewed as a political statement.

I feel for all of these assistance organizations; they just want to feed people. Many of those people need assistance because of trump's incompetence, and here he goes making another mess. The letter is a slap in the face to them, and those with any sense will know that.

It's astounding how trump manages to foul every single thing he touches.

[G_j]

9. And of course those good people are

are his complete antithesis. He doesn’t have an altruistic molecule in his being.

[WyattKansas]

8. Maybe a movement can be started to send the letters back to tRUMP at the White House saying...

'Fuck off asshole!' written on his letters with a Sharpie.