While on holiday in SA I read your fine newspaper daily. With the greatest respect, Marius Botha is utterly wrong in his analysis of US President Donald Trump (“Anti-Trump-tinted glasses”, February 5).
First, on the business and personal fronts there is an immense catalogue of failures. The cases of casino bankruptcies, the Manhattan Plaza Hotel closure, the Trump Shuttle airline bankruptcy, the closure of Trump University after fee gouging and nonprogrammes emerged, and the Trump foundation closure after money was spent buying a painting of Trump.
The Art of the Deal was the work of a ghost writer who bitterly regretted ever getting involved. Trump’s so-called golfing prowess is marred by cheating, as revealed by his golfing coach. There has also been loutish, bullying behaviour towards women, war veterans, Asians, Afro-Americans and anyone else who dared argue with him. Trump insulted the war hero John McCain even as the latter was on his deathbed. This from a man who, through college education deferments and a supposed bone spur heel injury, avoided serving in the Vietnam War.
Trump has reneged on his promise to release his tax records, and there is a case in the courts on this subject. Then there is the tsunami of Twitter expectorations and lies. The Washington Post and New York Times have catalogued more than 10,000 lies, distortions and exaggerations.
Much more serious are the negative domestic and foreign policies. There are elements in the US, including politicians, officers in the military and titanic corporations, that are forming the links required for a neo-fascist state. I refer Botha to the book It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, the first American novelist to win the Nobel prize for literature.
Anthony Radbill
Bornem, Belgium
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