Trump wasn’t perfect but he got many things right

As we have close ties with America, many of us watch its politics with interest and admire the good side of President Donald Trump. Despite his deep character failings, his themes of Make America Great and Drain the Swamp resonated. We liked his promise of no new wars and his attempts at peace in the Middle East and Afghanistan. If not for COVID, his promise of jobs in America would have come true.

But from here in Australia, it is easy to see the US not as a first world country, but rather as a second world country (and perhaps heading further down). There are deep social problems. For those less fortunate due to disability, family issues or lack of work, there is not an adequate safety net — medical, welfare, education or housing — to give people a reasonable life. The onus on new president Joe Biden and his administration is to deal with this entrenched inequality.

Let’s hope that the new Democrat administration does not indulge in the usual politically correct chatter while doing little to help those in need, and then retiring with obscene wealth, acquired through their positions of privilege, to spend the rest of their lives backslapping each other for their phantom successes when, in fact, those in America who are less fortunate continue to burn.

I am not optimistic.

Ian Morison, Forrest, ACT

Greg Jones (Letters, 19/1) asserts Donald Trump was not to blame for the deaths of five people as a result of the raid on the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6. The facts say otherwise.

Shortly before the deadly raid, President Trump told an unruly mob of his supporters, “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” He continued: “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

If that is not an incitement to violent (and ultimately deadly) insurrection, then what is?

Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin, ACT

Farewell to President Donald Trump, whose achievements are many — including lowering taxes, a booming economy before COVID-19, strengthening of American borders, the Abraham Accords, great Supreme Court additions, calling out China, speaking up about Cancel Culture (but silenced by Big Tech), and exiting the UN’s unfair and costly Paris Accord — to name a few. He wasn’t perfect. Who is?

Incoming president Joe Biden offers a big-taxing, Big Brother, big-spending, far-left push with the Green New Deal being a Trojan horse for the failed ideology of socialism.

Hopefully for America’s sake, Biden opts for his preferred policy response of the last 47 years — big on talk, little on action.

Mandy Macmillan, Singleton, NSW

The Trump carnival may be over (Letters, 18/1) but his legacy remains and despite impeachment and even conviction it cannot be erased. Ten million more Americans voted for him in 2020 than in 2016 to join those who were disenfranchised through the Obama years (and saw Trump as a touchstone against the cultural and liberal elites in the big cities) and wanted four more years. And Trump’s ability to increase his vote among the nation’s underclass will confound those on the Left who allege he never had their back. The new president has vowed to reach out across the political divide but his colleagues in the Democrat-controlled Congress have already made that Herculean task more difficult. Unless and until they understand the reasons for Trump’s accession to the White House the US is destined to continue its deep polarisation.

Kim Keogh, East Fremantle, WA

I suspect national security pundit John Bolton is still mourning the end of the Cold War — an uber-hawk like Bolton always knew exactly where he stood with those Russian commies (“Expiring arms deal a chance to bring China to the table”, 19/1). Times change, however, and a Russia that has ended its seven-decade communist aberration and re-embraced its centuries-old Orthodox heritage has become the West’s natural ally in the struggle against Islamic fundamentalism and a China bent on world domination — assuming the West is still interested in continuing these struggles. Biden would be wise to keep Bolton outside the tent. Credit where it’s due: Trump got Russia right.

Terry Birchley, Bundaberg, Qld