I fear that Donald Trump’s belligerent disputing of the validity of the election result is much more insidious than him simply being a bad loser. By repeatedly denouncing the accuracy of the outcome, even before it has been confirmed, he is giving his supporters a green light to spend the next four years blatantly defying a Biden government, and generally causing public mayhem, on the grounds that the Democrats “stole” the election from Trump, and that the new government thus has no democratic authority of mandate.
As such, I fear that mass protests, the occupation of public buildings, and intimidation (especially of black communities) by gun-toting Trump supporters, will become a routine occurrence, justified on the grounds that ignoring the “undemocratic” Biden government is the duty of true “American patriots”.
If tough punitive action is taken against them, they will claim that democracy and liberty are being suppressed by “radical leftists” in Washington. But if their mayhem is ignored, they will claim that law and order is being undermined due a weak government in thrall to “political correctness” and “snowflake liberals”.
Or am I just paranoid?
Pete Dorey
Bath, Somerset
• A great column by Marina Hyde (What to do when your president has a temper tantrum, 6 November) who summarised four years of irrational childlike behaviour from the leader of the free world. We all knew he was acting up with giant temper tantrums and scant regard for the checks and balances which affect us all to some degree.
But her parental parody has a serious side, why did his family and associates blindly follow him, picking up his discarded toys along the way? Surely common sense would have prevailed sometimes, when enough was indeed enough. The answer is seemingly not, as they grouped loyally around his throne.
Heaven forbid we ever have a president like this again. Joe Biden is already showing a great deal of perspicacity, as it is well known that he hasn’t much time for Boris Johnson or Brexit. So hopefully there will no more divisive and self-seeking stunts of prorogation and the infamous breaking of international law, because Donald Trump has now left the building.
Judith Daniels
Cobholm, Norfolk
