Trump and ‘democracy’

US President Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after a number of public rifts over policy on North Korea, Russia and Iran, replacing him with CIA director Mike Pompeo.

Tillerson survived calling the president a ‘moron’ but it seems the mercurial Trump has had enough of his chief adviser.

Trump said yesterday: ‘We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things’, adding that he and Mr Pompeo have ‘a similar thought process’.

And there is the problem.

A truly great – or even good – leader will always choose to have people close to him who disagree with some of his views.

This helps to stymie group-think and, makes for a better-balanced world view.

In short, everybody benefits from debate and discourse. Nobody benefits from blind obedience to one man’s opinions.

It seems that Trump, in doing away with dissenting voices, is following the example of China’s president-for-life Xi Jinping. So much for democracy.

HARRY KEEGAN, Co. Dublin.