Trump and Charlottesville

Sir, – During Barack Obama’s second term as president of the United States, I happened to hear a conversation on a regional radio station where the presenter casually asked his visiting American guest on his arts show what he thought of the then-president. This hitherto obliging guest astonishingly replied that a “three-legged dog would do a better job”. I’m reminded of this after listening to some of President Trump’s latest press conference after the tragic and ugly events in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the weekend when he said “not all of these people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of these people were white supremacists by any stretch”. One has therefore to ask if these extreme right-wing demonstrators were not all what the president says they were, then what exactly were they? The American people, through the electoral college system, got what they voted for in last year’s election. The only question to be answered now is how many legs does this thing have and at what stage does it all end in calamity? – Yours, etc,

TOM McELLIGOTT,

Listowel,

Co Kerry.