While I agree with Geno Mariotti’s conclusion in his July 23 letter, I believe he has forgotten the absolute reason Trump should not be reelected in 2024. Trump's leadership in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic was a proven, colossal failure; and an U.S. president must be an effective leader.

The United States has 4% of the world's population yet we experienced 16% of the world’s deaths. Some of Trump’s failures were:

– In May 2018, Trump disbanded the National Security Council directorate that handled pandemic response, with some team members reassigned elsewhere.

– In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, but Trump discredited WHO.

– When Trump admitted that COVID-19 was a serious issue, it was too late to stop its spread.

– To handle pandemic logistics, he appointed J Kushner — a real estate expert. Isn't our military loaded with logistics experts?

Due to Trump's failures, America had the world's worst COVID-19 death rate. Even Canada would not allow U.S. residents into the country because of our COVID-19 situation.

Consider how a well-led country responded by comparing us with Japan. Japan's population is approximately 110 million, roughly one-third of the USA's. Japan has had roughly 74,000 COVID-19 deaths. If the USA had been led similarly to Japan, we would only have had 196,000 deaths.

Instead, the United States had a death rate 15 times that, roughly 1.1 million Americans! This deadly failure is the indisputable reason not to reelect Trump in 2024.

Ron Koch, Butler