Flawed personality

Darren Saunders’ Striving for greatness (Nov 24) continues his assault on those who dare to suggest that President Trump is not the devil incarnate, but rather a flawed and polarising personality who in fact did keep the promises he made when elected in 2016. In response to a recent letter of mine, Mr Saunders implied that all of the 72 million Americans who voted for Trump in the 2020 election lack decency and empathy. Reductio ad absurdum to that.

Related to the theme of Trump Derangement Syndrome, a column by Rosemary McLeod, Frankenstein and monsters (Nov 20) plumbed new depths of malevolence as she belittled President Trump and his former wife, Ivana.

In May Van Gordon Sauter, a former president of CBS News, wrote that long gone is any semblance of fairness or balance within much of the American mainstream media. To quote him directly: ‘‘To many journalists, objectivity, balance and fairness – once the gold standard of reporting – are not mandatory in a divided political era and in a country they believe to be severely flawed’’. Those remarks could equally apply elsewhere.

Bruce Anderson, St Albans (Abridged)