Philippines president and Trump of the same cloth?

THE EDITOR, Sir:

IN RESPONSE to outspoken president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, denouncing God in a recently televised broadcast, Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes called Duterte “one evil man” and described his remarks as being “very much consistent with the deceitfulness, heartlessness and ruthlessness of his policies”.

Duterte, in response to his calling God “stupid”, was described as a “madman” by Catholic Bishop Arturo Bastes. Further, Bastes called Duterte a “psychological freak, a psychopath, an abnormal mind, who should not have been elected as president of our civilised and Christian nation”.

US President Donald Trump has never called God ‘stupid’. However, sadly, ashamedly and embarrassingly, given his long and growing list of racially charged, bizarre, vulgar and mean-spirited statements, and in many cases, outright lies – prior to and after being appointed president – the aforementioned negative descriptions of Duterte could easily be transcribed to Trump.

Whenever a US president and, moreover, the leader of the Free World’s character can so easily be likened to that of a dictatorial despot’s own, all decent, wellthinking and law-abiding US citizens, and citizens of all democratic nations worldwide, who cherish and respect democratic norms, laws and freedoms, should be very concerned/worried.