Sir, – Many people are delighted that Donald Trump lost the Obamacare reform battle, for the moment at least, and it suggests that other aspects of his election campaign, such as massive investment in infrastructure and the reopening of coal mines, may also falter. He has more opposition within the Republican Party than he believes. However, our delight should be tempered by the fact that Trump’s most realistic chance of getting Congress and the Senate to give him the unquestioning support he craves is to start a war somewhere. Any war, anywhere, will suffice to give him what he needs, and the tradition in the US is that the country unites behind the president in war.
Apart from the questions of when and where the war will be, and how many people will die, the only other question will be whether Theresa May will promise, like Tony Blair before her, unwavering support for an American war and that she “will be with him whatever”. – Yours, etc,
MARY MORRISSEY,
Castletownbere,
Co Cork.