This is Putin’s victory (Turmoil fuels schism between Trump’s White House and Republican party, 29 July). Whether there was collusion by the Trump campaign or not is irrelevant, and Putin’s interference in the election is beyond doubt. But the idea that this was about getting rid of sanctions or having a US president sympathetic to Russian interests is laughable. Trump is no one’s puppet and couldn’t deliver a Russia-favourable policy any more than he could refrain from tweeting: he is incapable of delivering anything at all.
The WannaCry assault on the world’s digital infrastructure was not about ransom money: its purpose was to sow chaos. In the same vein, Putin’s meddling to deliver Trump into the White House had only one purpose: to destabilise US democracy and, with it, western liberal democracy in general. The last week shows he has achieved his first goal. Sad.
Daniel Nucinkis
London
• Jonathan Freedland (Opposition to Trump has to go beyond mere disgust, 29 July) should stop being obsessed by Donald Trump. The problem with America from a European perspective lies less with the White House and more with Capitol Hill. Congress has passed a bill mandating the president to impose additional sanctions against Russia and Iran. Europe has not been consulted even though it will bear the brunt of a further hardening of relations with Russia. As for Iran, Europe – in the form of the UK, France, Germany and the EU – was a party to the nuclear deal. It is not in Europe’s interest to sabotage the deal.
It’s time Europe, and more particularly the UK, showed some backbone in their dealings with Washington.
Yugo Kovach
Winterborne Houghton, Dorset
• Donald Trump and his doings could certainly be called surrealistic if they were not sadly real. However, I would like to propose a different reasoning as to why the man is doing what he is doing: he desperately wants to be ousted. His humongous ego will not allow him to resign or concede defeat in any way, and so he is taking all kind of outrageous decisions with the secret hope that there will be enough elements there for the system to fire him.
Bill Conde
Engelberg, Switzerland
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