Letters: Trump’s on-the-job training

Lolly MacKenzie’s generalisations and intellectually lazy assertions cannot go unchallenged (Give Trump a chance, Letters, April 21).
Her vague claim that Obama ‘bucked the law’ to push through an agenda that transformed the nation to the ‘detriment and horror of American citizens’ is her personal opinion and clearly not shared by the majority of the people at the time.
To suggest that ‘laws were broken’ and that ‘nobody ever questioned his methods, however illegal they were’ is disingenuous. This dystopian view of America under Obama was a narrative espoused by Trump and perpetuated by the ‘fake media’ of which Mackenzie herself has become a victim. You have the right to disagree with Obama’s politics, but he broke no laws.
Trump, on the other hand, ran a campaign filled with rhetoric and hyperbole, adopting postures born of ignorance. Trump is a tactical, transactional president with no guiding convictions or principles beyond ‘winning’ – for himself.
His reversals or inaction on just about all his electioneering promises from a cosy relationship with Russia and the Syrians to false allegations about China and their currency manipulation, NATO, healthcare, travel bans, NAFTA and the Mexico border wall are indicative of a president who assumed the office with a narrow world view and who is consequently forced to undergo on-the-job training.
Trump’s sophomoric presidential tweets from factually incorrect accusations of Obama’s wiretapping of his offices to the use of puerile provocations and aggressive words highlight a self-righteous bravado and a challenged relationship with veracity.
Trump claims to articulate the views of the Christian Evangelicals, yet fails to display one of the most important of Christian values – humility.
CLAUDIO FERRI
Zimbali